Zeta Episode
by Kyogre
Summary: Complete, ORAS game-verse. When his father goes missing, Steven finds himself digging deep into a thirty year old mystery regarding Devon and their once-rival, Mauville.
1. Devon

~.~.~

 **Title:** Zeta Episode

 **Summary:** ORAS game-verse. When his father goes missing, Steven finds himself digging deep into an old mystery regarding Devon and their past rival.

~.~.~

 **Chapter 1: Devon**

"Ladies and gentlemen, we are now beginning our descent to Rustboro Airport..." the flight attendant's calm, rout announcement echoed through the cabin. As she had warned, the small airplane began to tip, a small shudder running through the frame.

Habitually, Steven reached down to check his seat belt — securely fastened across his waist — but his gaze remained fixed outside the window, as if waiting for the first glimpse of their destination. The flight was a short one, just from the international airport in Kanto, so they had barely cleared the clouds to begin with, and now the view outside was quickly plunged into nothing but white as they descended.

Steven's fingers drummed an unconscious rhythm against the armrest. It wasn't nervousness, precisely, and certainly not about the flight. Rather, it was unease about what awaited in Hoenn, and his uncertainty about just what that would be.

'Dad...' Steven thought, his lips thinning unhappily as he stared blankly out the window.

It should have been nothing, but... he hadn't been able to get in touch with his father before heading back. It wasn't like Joseph to miss calls from his only child. And on top of that, he'd been strangely distant for weeks before as well. He hadn't even reacted when Steven described his newest rock finds, despite being just as much a maniac as his son.

Steven had often privately lamented his father's prying and overly energetic nature, but the distracted quiet from the other end of the line had been unsettling. And now, there was no reply at all.

He had even taken a flight back instead of going by boat as usual. Perhaps it was unfounded, but he couldn't shake the sense of growing dread.

The jolt of the plane's wheels hitting the tarmac dragged him out of his thoughts. The speakers crackled and came on again, but he tuned out the announcements that followed, as well as the shifting of his fellow passengers.

Even though it was Hoenn's main air hub, the Rustboro Airport was small and not particularly busy. They wouldn't be taxing for long, as long as Wingulls or some other wild Pokemon hadn't settled down on the airstrip again. He would just need to get back his Poke Balls, stored away during the flights according to regulations, and his luggage, and then...

'It shouldn't be more than twenty minutes to the Devon headquarters,' Steven thought before he had even made the decision.

But he was already planning to head straight there. Otherwise, this nagging sense of something wrong wouldn't go away. His house in Mossdeep, or even a hotel... He could handle that later, even if dragging around his bags, heavy with rock samples would be hard. At worst, he would have them delivered, he calculated mentally.

'...I'm really that worried?' Steven realized, smiling wryly at himself.

To think of actually letting someone else handle his precious stones... It felt ridiculous. His father would laugh at him when Steven showed up at his office, all worked up. He wouldn't live this down for years.

He hoped.

With a sharp trill, the seatbelt sign went out, and he rose to his feet quickly.

~.~.~

Steven was sure the clerk at the front desk paled when he stepped into the Devon headquarters. That was not a good sign. And just when the seemingly peaceful state of Rustoro City had started to calm him, making his fears seem silly and rash...

"M-Mr. Stone!" she stammered, glancing nervously between the phone and the computer on her desk — wondering and hoping for some hidden note about how she was supposed to deal with him.

For once, Steven didn't bother trying to convince her to call him by name. "Good afternoon, Amber," he greeted her with a polite smile that was still a bit sharp. "I need to speak with my father."

As he had expected — with a sinking feeling — the office lady flustered, chewing on her lip uncertainly. "President Stone is... unavailable right now," she replied, in an obviously scripted way. So it was probably not just him that his father was unavailable for... which didn't bode well at all.

"And what is he doing?" Steven asked, raising his eyebrows a little. "I can wait, if he's in a meeting."

"He's..." Another nervous glance at everywhere except at him.

"He's not here?" Steven guessed. "Then, when is he going to return?"

If his father took off on some expedition, even unplanned and unannounced as the old man was prone to do once in awhile when the wanderlust or maybe rock maniac fever became too much, there wouldn't be any reason to hide it from him. That explanation was what Steven had been hoping for, secretly — that his father had just been distracted by some fancy new rock he'd heard of and he wasn't answering because he was down in some cave, as the Stone family so often did.

But what else could it be? Why the secrecy? Some kind of confidential corporate matter, like an intense negotiation or new, important research? No, in that case, the front desk wouldn't know anything and wouldn't get flustered — she knew something, enough to realize he might deserve an answer, but also that she wasn't sure whether it was alright to give him one.

Steven's hand tightened around the handle of his bag, and some of his growing frustration must have shown on his face. Darting a look at him and away quickly, the office lady seemed to finally come to a decision.

"That's..." The clerk glanced surreptitiously around the lobby, especially at the reporter pair at the far end, and leaned in to whisper, "Please wait a moment, I'm going to call the vice president."

She pulled away without waiting for an answer, already reaching for the phone and dialing quickly. Half turning, she even lifted her free hand to shield the microphone and muffle her words. It was all very suspicious and ominous.

Steven barely noticed. It was his turn to pale slightly. 'The vice president...' he thought faintly. 'Of all people, why did it have to be her...?'

Hanging up the phone, the office lady turned back to him. "Please head up, Mr. Stone. Vice President Carat is waiting for you."

~.~.~

The vice president's office was just one floor beneath the president's, also taking up an entire level of the front building. So he couldn't use getting lost as an excuse, even if Steven had made sure he never had a reason to visit there previously.

...It wasn't the time to stall anyway.

Squaring his shoulders, Steven took a deep breath as the elevator slid to a stop and the doors opened with a quiet ding.

Unlike his father, she had placed her desk directly across from the elevator, instead of around the corner. Not that it mattered, since she wasn't sitting behind it — she was waiting in the middle of the room, and before Steven had even taken a step out, she was already approaching.

The Vice President of Devon Corporation didn't look happy to see him, but then she never did. After all, he was her competition, in a certain sense... for the future position of President.

Steven didn't want the job and had never made a single effort toward it, but the idea of "a Stone heading Devon" was too deeply ingrained for many on the board and among the employees to even consider deviating from it — even though the vice president had forged her way up through the ranks, serving the company faithfully for decades, and was the person second most familiar with its inner workings.

Naturally, she couldn't stand him. Or perhaps he was projecting somewhat — there was an inescapable feeling of falling short of his family's legacy, when he was around her. But, still, she probably couldn't stand him. She'd certainly never failed to treat him coldly when they happened to cross paths.

"What do you know?" the vice president said without any preamble, her gaze slipping to the travel bag he still carried and doubtlessly immediately guessing that he'd come to headquarters immediately — that he'd had some reason to rush.

"Good afternoon, Vice President Carat," Steven greeted with almost pointed politeness. "I'm afraid I don't know anything. In fact, I was hoping I could get some answers from you."

Her lips thinned and she studied him for a long moment, glasses catching the light and hiding her expression. Finally, Carat nodded and gestured for him to follow her into the office, toward the couch.

"The president is missing," she said flatly, dropping onto a seat.

Steven started at her, freezing in the middle of setting down his bag. "...Missing?" he repeated.

The vice president nodded sharply. "It's been three days," she said with a grimace. "As far as anyone knows, he was in his office. But when one of the clerks came to deliver some documents, he wasn't there. We can't reach his phone or his PokeNav. There was no note, and he didn't tell anyone that he was going out."

"And you're trying to hide that from everyone, to keep the company from going into a panic," Steven surmised, frowning. "Have you at least told the police?"

She glared, and Steven matched it, too angry to be intimidated.

That was a no. If it came out that the president of Devon was missing, the company would suffer. People would panic and lose confidence. Customers, partner businesses, investors... it would be a mess, and it might seriously damage the company.

As the Vice President, she was determined to put Devon first, and she refused to back down even as Steven's expression darkened more and more.

"There was no sign of foul play," she said. "And we obviously haven't received any ransom demands or any proof that someone targeted him—"

"What else could it be?" Steven snapped. "You're just wasting time! You should—"

"The president would agree with me," she cut him off coldly.

Steven... couldn't really argue with that. His father didn't put much stock in any law enforcement. Even when the company suffered from theft, break ins, or sabotage, Mr. Stone had always preferred to handle it internally or entrust it to someone he knew personally. Many in Hoenn did. And... he also put Devon first in many ways. Steven couldn't say with certainty what he would value more, his life or his company's reputation.

"Now," Carat said, taking advantage of his hesitation, "you knew something was wrong. Tell me."

"I don't know anything about this," Steven shot back. "He just sounded strange for a while, when we talked, and he didn't answer my calls for the last few days. I was worried... rightfully so."

"He sounded strange? For how long? A week? Two weeks? Longer?" she pressed immediately, but Steven could only frown, unable to recall exactly. Grimacing, she muttered, "I knew it. This wasn't random at all... he must have been involved in something he didn't tell me or anyone about..."

"Are you really not going to contact anyone?" Steven asked, ignoring her frustration. "We have to do something! Dad could be..."

He didn't even know. Kidnapped? Hurt? Whatever it was, Steven had to do something to help. His father didn't even have any Pokemon of his own to rely on.

"He knew something," Carat repeated. "I had a feeling too... I've been going through his documents and the records of the last two weeks to see if I could find anything strange, but—"

A sharp ringing interrupted her.

"—but I haven't had much time, between my work and covering for President Stone," she muttered dryly, already up and moving briskly toward her desk. Picking up the phone, she listened with a frown. "I thought we postponed all the meetings," she said, to whoever was on the line. The unheard response made her sigh quietly. "Fine. Show her to the third floor meeting room. I'll be there in a bit."

She hung up, but remained at the desk for a moment, gathering her thoughts.

"If you're too busy, then at least let me help look," Steven said. He scowled at the unreadable look he received. "Is there something confidential? So you don't trust me to look through his files?"

"The president made it clear that you should be given full access to everything, if you request it," Carat shot back. Her expression made it clear that she didn't precisely agree, but she wouldn't go against her boss either. "What I doubt is your ability to judge if anything is abnormal."

Blunt. ...At the same time, she had a point. Steven hesitated, certain he couldn't just sit back and do nothing, but also not all certain what he could actually do.

"But," the vice president said, pushing up her glasses and smiling dryly, "I think I have an idea how to make use of you."

~.~.~

 **Notes:** Entirely dumb excuse to write ORAS dreamboat fic. A lot of headcanons and some blatant breaks from canon. Also, this is all Alternative Angel's fault.

Airport: Hoenn is based on Kyushu, and the biggest airport in Kyushu is in Fukuoka, which is roughly equivalent to Rustboro. It also makes sense for the major airport to be close to Devon, which seems to run half the region. In general, the games avoid showing planes or cars too much (for the sake of a more "romantic adventure" atmosphere, I assume), and there's no mention of anyone flying between regions or countries, just going by SS Anne or other large cruise ships. But they obviously do exist.

As always, please review!

~.~.~


	2. Meetings

~.~.~

 **Chapter 2: Meetings**

'I assume you are capable of presenting an appropriate image,' the vice president had said, raising her eyebrows in something between doubt and challenge. 'So at the very least, I can make use of your name.'

Pausing in front of the meeting room doors, Steven tugged at the lapels of his jacket and checked his cuff links — mostly to buy himself time.

To be frank, he wasn't very familiar with acting in an official capacity for Devon, even if he had been raised and tutored to do so. And yet, that was what Carat expected him to do. As she had told him, there were many who would happily accept an explanation and an apology coming from the president's son — especially groups as traditional as the one that had requested a meeting.

Well, there wasn't any point in stalling further. Gripping the handle, he pushed the doors open and stepped inside with a practiced smile.

"Hello, Madame Murasaki," he said, catching the gaze of the old woman waiting inside. "On behalf of Devon Corporation, thank you for coming. It's a pleasure to have you here."

He had been about to extend his hand, somehow expecting someone as sharp and decisive as their vice president, but seeing the woman herself made him quickly change it a bow. She was younger than he'd expected, but certainly far more traditional — dressed in a full, immaculately styled lavender kimono and wooden sandals, dark hair with a streak of gray pulled up in a simple bun.

Steven's eyes lingered on her hairpin and the rainbow stone glittering within it, before dropping in surprise to the Mawile that peaked out from behind her legs.

"The pleasure is all mine," the representative, Murasaki, replied with a matching bow. She smiled pleasantly as they both straightened. "You must be Steven, President Stone's son? My, Mr. Stone must be quite proud to have such a handsome boy." Covering her smile with one hand, she chuckled. "Ah, I hope you don't mind this little one. I like to have her with me. She's a big help."

"It's no problem," Steven said quickly. "I love Pokemon too, of course. In fact, I also have a special fondness for Steel types, like Mawile. There's something special about their strong, tough bodies, isn't there? A certain nobility and sense of solitary power... My Metagross in particular is—"

Ah. He could feel the vice president's evil eye on the back of his head, as if she could sense that he was deviating from the script she'd given him.

"—my favorite Pokemon," he concluded. "Yes."

Carat's glare had been particularly sharp when she explained why this meeting was important — the investment group that Madame Murasaki represented, the Aeon Fund, was one of the wealthiest in Hoenn. Their goal was, "Elders investing in the future," in other words, rich old gentlemen and madames seeking to use their wealth for the sake of the next generation.

Normally, their interests lay in new, small businesses, but they also supported technological innovations, and Devon had been angling for a partnership for a long time. Mr. Stone had only managed to convince them to consider his offer, so this sudden visit was probably a response to that — a response they'd be expecting to give to the president himself.

And that was where Steven came in, since a group as traditionally oriented as Aeon Fund would be the sort who believed in the power of bloodlines and companies passing from father to son.

He was not unused to high pressure situations, but still...

Thankfully, Madame Murasaki only smiled indulgently and reached down to pet her Mawile's head. "That's good to hear," she said. "Loving Pokemon is something everyone can share."

Clearing his throat, Steven took on a more serious expression. "You must be wondering why I am the one meeting you, instead of my father..." he said, moving back on topic. "I apologize, after you came all this way, but the president is currently unavailable. And it may be some time before he returns."

Madame Murasaki nodded, her expression sympathetic — though for a high-profile businesswoman like her, that didn't necessarily mean much. "I see," she said. "That's a little disappointing, but understandable. Devon is one of Hoenn's giants, after all. I'm sure Mr. Stone has no end of matters requiring his attention." She chuckled. "Well, it's my fault for dropping by without scheduling an appointment."

That had indeed been the case. Carat had meticulously cleared the president's schedule, postponing any meetings he had. It was only this one, which had come up without warning, that took her by surprise.

"It's not really a very urgent or priority matter," Madame Murasaki demurred. "It's just that we finished looking over Mr. Stone's proposal and put together our response. Here, please send us your thoughts when you have the chance." She reached down to accept the thick document envelope that her Mawile, which had been carrying it for her, held up, and passed it to Steven.

He accepted it carefully, with both hands and polite incline of his head. "Thank you," he said, tucking the envelope under his arm. "We will study it carefully and reach out as soon as possible with our reply."

"We look forward to working with Devon," Madame Murasaki said.

Their transaction should have been complete, but she hesitated, raising a hand to her lips and glancing away from Steven and back again. Having no idea what else to do, he waited — his smile becoming strained and cold sweat breaking out on the back of his neck.

If something went wrong, he'd never heard the end of it from the vice president...

"Ah, well... it's a bit silly," Madame Murasaki chuckled. "But would you mind...? Signing an autograph for me?"

"An... autograph?" Steven repeated.

"Many of our investors used to be quite avid trainers in their youth," she explained, a little sheepishly. "They still follow the Pokemon League closely, so..."

So, of course, they were familiar with him. "An autograph, of course," Steven said, nearly sighing in relief. "I'd be happy to. Do you have anything...?"

"Please use this." She pulled out a plain white card from her purse and proffered it, along with a pen. A golden border, along with what must have been the Aeon Fund crest had been pressed into it, but it was otherwise blank, some kind of spare.

This, at least, was something more familiar. Even though he had tried to remain lowkey about his position as Hoenn League Champion, Steven had given his share of autographs, in particular during and after the Pokemon World Tournament. Writing out his name in practiced strokes, he paused as he waited for the ink to dry.

"By the way, that hairpin..." he began, "isn't that a Key Stone?"

"This?" Madame Murasaki reached up to gently touch the round stone set in her hairpin. She chuckled. "Oh, it's not what you're thinking! I'm not much for battles myself. It was a gift, you see, both of them as a set — my dear Mawile's jewel, too."

Reaching down, she patted her Mawile again. Indeed, there was a yellow and lavender marble hanging from the bow around the base of its jaw-horn — a Mawilite.

"That's quite a special gift. A Key Stone and a Mega Stone aren't just a way of gaining more power," Steven said, handing back the autographed card. "They are also a symbol of the bond between a trainer and their Pokemon."

"Pokemon are dear friends to many of our members," Madame Murasaki agreed. "Especially for those who do not have close family. After all, as long as Pokemon are with you, you won't ever be alone. But, I think you know that even better than me."

She laughed again, and Steven couldn't help joining.

This turned out to be a lot less painful than he'd expected. Pokemon were truly amazing.

Now, if only the second task could be as simple...

~.~.~

Despite the vice president's best efforts, it wasn't entirely to completely hide Devon's strange state of affairs. It hadn't spread far across the region, and it was still just speculation, but the first news reports had already started — that was the reason why a pair of reporters had been hanging around in the lobby, fishing for an interview.

The only thing they had been able to find out so far, using their contacts, was that Devon had rescheduled a large number of high-profile meetings. That fact was proclaimed boldly in the text at the bottom of the screen, along with their current best guess for the cause: "Devon upper management preoccupied — New discovery?"

It was rather mild, as far as things went. Devon was fortunate to have quite a bit of credibility in stock with the public. But it wouldn't be long before the news started getting more suspicious.

The video playing behind this text was of the Devon building's lobby — the network's best reporter, Gabby, narrating as her partner filmed Steven accompanying Madame Murasaki outside and hailing a cab for her. They approached swiftly once the cab door shut and the visitor departed, aiming for an ambush with the president's son.

"Mr. Stone!" Gabby hailed him as Steven turned around. "If you don't mind, a few minutes of your time—"

"Certainly," he said, smiling. "But please call me Steven."

Making the best of her time, Gabby only nodded sharply and skipped straight to the questions. "It's rare to see you here at Devon. Is there a particular reason for you visit? Anything you can tell us? It looks like you were part of a meeting with the head of the Aeon Fund, departing just now."

Steven had thought Murasaki was just a representative, not the head, but none of the panic and then relief he felt — that the meeting was successful anyway — showed on his face.

"There's no point in hiding it," he said, chuckling. "As you guessed, I'm helping my father with some business, while he is unavailable. But before you ask, no, I can't give you any details about his absence. I'm afraid that is a matter of high confidentiality for Devon."

"Come on, not even a hint?" Gabby cajoled, pointing the microphone at him. "Is it a new product? An event?"

"Please look forward to it," Steven said, his smile taking on a mysterious edge.

The screen blinked off.

"Not bad. You handle public speaking well," the vice president allowed, turning back to Steven and raising her eyebrows in a way that made her compliment seem a bit sarcastic.

"I can't believe they're airing it already," Steven muttered. "I barely made it back upstairs..."

"That's the power of modern media for you. But this should at least put them off the trail for now," Carat sighed. "So all we can do is try to resolve this quickly. There's a few leads—"

"You found something?" he spoke up in surprise. "What is it?"

The flat look he received made him lean back a little, putting up his hands in a gesture of surrender. "I've found a few things that don't feel quite right," she explained. She sighed. "But none of them seem to lead to any obvious conclusion. Since you're here, I'll have you investigate them as possible leads."

"Good, I'll go," Steven confirmed, even if she hadn't asked his opinion on the matter.

"The most obvious one is that the president met with the Mauville Gym Leader, Wattson, several times over the last few weeks. It's strange, I couldn't find anything like that in his schedule before recently," she said. "It seemed like a long shot, but maybe Wattson knows something."

"Wattson..." Steven repeated.

He was familiar with the Hoenn Gym Leaders and their backgrounds, at least to some extent, and he could admit that he wasn't sure why his father would suddenly want to meet the man repeatedly, especially with the redevelopment of Mauville City long since complete.

Shaking away his pointlessly speculating thoughts, he said, "I'll call him right away..."

The vice president was shaking her head. "Given the situation, I'd prefer if you go in person. I'm not sure if it's paranoia to be concerned about something getting overheard, but the situation is serious enough that he might refuse to tell you over the phone."

"Then I'll head out right away—"

Sighing sharply, Carat regarded him with an unreadable expression. "I understand that you're worried," she said. "But you should at least stay the night. It's getting late, and you must be feeling pretty jetlagged, right?"

She was right, of course. Steven had been traveling for almost a day by the time he reached Rustboro, and he had been running around, worried and scared, for hours since. He didn't want to admit it, but he was tired. Even so...

"There's no time to wasted," he said sharply. "The sooner I get moving, the sooner we can figure out what happened to Dad."

"It's not going to do anyone any good if you fall off your Pokemon in mid flight," the vice president pointed out dryly. "At least sleep a bit before heading out. It's already getting late anyway, you probably won't make there before midnight."

Rustboro to Mauville was halfway across Hoenn and not a short trip by any means. HIs Pokemon were strong and could make it in one go, but they'd arrive late, quite likely after Wattson had turned in for the night. And she had a point — he could imagine the scene all too clearly. Nodding off, exhausted and cold, slipping sideways and plummeting toward the forest below...

He grimaced and shot the vice president a sharp look that was just short of a glare. He wanted to blame her for stalling again, when she had refused to take any action for days already, but what would that accomplish?

His head was starting to pound, which was the most convincing argument. At this rate, he might really fall off Skarmory.

"...Fine," he conceded with uncharacteristically poor grace.

"You can use the president's office, if you want to avoid dealing with any questions," she said, apparently unconcerned. "No one should bother you there, and you can leave when you're ready. Let me know if Wattson doesn't know anything, I'll give you next thing to look into."

As Steven headed for the door, she called out quietly.

"Good luck," she said. "I hope you find him..."

~.~.~

Steven's father had been a workaholic since his youth, long before Steven was born. Although they shared a passion for rocks, Joseph Stone's first love had always been Devon. He often worked from dawn to dusk and then some, so it was only natural that his office included a rather comfortable foldout couch. He had certainly forgotten to head home at all often enough.

Dropping onto it, his bag thumping down next to him, Steven sighed heavily and looked around the small backroom of the office.

It was less precisely coordinated than the main rooms, which were presented to visitors, but display cases of rare stones still lined the walls. It made Steven smile faintly. But, looking around, it didn't seem like there were any other personal effects to be found, even though this was where his father basically lived.

The smile slipped off his face and, sighing again, Steven forced himself to his feet.

There was an adjoining bathroom too, stocked with all the basic toiletries — well, basic by Steven's standards. Given Wallace's mixed admiration and exasperation when he asked and received an explanation of what Steven considered a basic morning routine, it was probably not the same as an ordinary person's. Loosening his tie, Steven ran the faucet and began to wash up.

'Dad...' he thought, staring into the sink and the water swirling down the drain.

It had been a long day, and he suddenly felt all the stress and exhaustion that had been piling up. Maybe at least sleeping for a bit would be the best choice...

If he could get to sleep in the first place. Even though his body was certainly worn out, his thoughts kept spinning away too quickly for Steven to drift off. Grimacing, he rolled over onto his side — it didn't help, leaving him staring blankly at the display cases that had been placed on the end table.

'Why did Dad even put these here?' Steven wondered peevishly. 'They're so plain. You can find stones like that anywhere around here.'

The small pebbles couldn't compare to the rare fossils and colorful sambles from abroad that were proudly set out in the main part of the office. But surely Joseph hadn't run out of interesting rocks to display and had to fall back on something that looked like a kid might pick it up by the river?

'...Wait. These are...'

Propping himself up on one elbow, Steven leaned in to take a closer look. Now that he thought about, didn't those stones look familiar?

It was hard to make out the labels on the cases in the shadowed room, but Steven couldn't smiling wryly as the letters finally made sense.

Something that a kid might pick up was exactly right. They were the rocks he had proudly given his father as a child, picked up from the various little trips he'd been allowed on across Hoenn. To think that Joseph had kept all of them, carefully labelled with the age his son had been when he found them, displaying them were he could look at them every evening when he remained late at the office...

'...Dad, I'll definitely find out what happened,' Steven swore. 'I'll find you.'

Laying back, he closed his eyes and forced his mind to blank. Tomorrow would be a long day, he could feel it.

~.~.~

 **Notes:** Yeah, we're in OC hell. I'm sorry about that, but it should lighten up after this, and we'll be seeing much more canon characters. I'm not trying to really play a mystery angle here, so I'm sure you can guess what Pokemon tradition we're following with one of them.

Also, I uh haven't actually edited this. I'm aware it needs at least one more pass of proofreading and to wrangle the dialogue to sound less same-y and wooden, but I just don't have the will for it. Sorry...

As always, please review!

~.~.~


	3. Mauville

~.~.~

 **Chapter 3: Mauville**

Having fallen asleep early in the evening, Steven woke up before dawn. He didn't waste time before setting out, leaving only a note for the vice president — she knew where he was going, but at least this way she'd be sure he hadn't upped and disappeared too.

The air was cold, especially once Skarmory reached the altitude it used for long distance flights. Dew gathered on its sleek metal feathers, making them slick under Steven's hands. Carefully adjusting his grip, he ducked his head against the wind nipping at his nose and cheeks.

By the time the towers of Mauville City came into view, the sun had climbed over the horizon and the town must have been beginning its day. Hopefully, he'd be able to catch Wattson before he began accepting challengers at the gym. Since Mauville lay at a major crossroads, it was one of the most popular and often challenged gyms in their league, and the matchup schedule against the gym leader was often booked all day.

As they landed at the Route 117 entrance to the city, Steven slid off his Pokemon's back and winced a little at the soreness of his muscles. Skarmory cawed lowly, pushing its beak against him.

"Thank you. You did great as always," he praised it, scratching carefully between its sharp plates. "Sorry, but I don't have time to rush. I'll give you a proper polishing later, okay?"

The most vain among Steven's team of rocks, rocks, and more rocks, Skarmory gave him a look that said he'd better not forget, or a suit or two would end up in stips next time he needed a ride. But, with a final scratch between its neck plates, it allowed itself to be returned to its Poke Ball without protest.

After the redevelopment project, Mauville had become one of Hoenn's largest cities, with a wide variety of shops and some of the most prestigious housing in the region. It was hard to remember that only a few years back, it had been a small town about the size of Petalburg, with the gym and its location along the highway out of Slateport being its only points of interest. Wattson had been not only the original planner behind the redevelopment, but also the one who gathered the funding and the lead of the implementation team. Mauville was in many ways his city.

Because of that, there were a number of perfectly innocuous reasons why Mr. Stone might have arranged meetings with him, and Steven tried not to let his expectations get too high.

Or his uneasiness. Wattson hadn't returned the message Steven left him the prior evening, but that was hardly a warning sign. The man was certain to be quite busy...

The streets were already quite busy, and activity was only picking up as the morning wore on. Although Steven had mostly managed to avoid any public attention from his position as the Champion or from his connections to Devon, a few people still shot him long, interested looks as they passed him in the streets. Picking up the pace, Steven felt a small burst of relief as the familiar facade of the Mauville City Gym came into view.

That relief was short-lived. The lights and the front displays were on, but a group — trainers by their looks — had gathered in front of the gym. They had been whispering among themselves, but noticing his approach, they turned to stare at him instead. Recognizing him, someone muttered to their neighbor and soon the small crowd parted to let him pass to the front of the gym.

"Um... Is there anything wrong with the gym?" one of the trainers asked. "I mean, if the League sent you..."

It took a moment for Steven to respond, as he stared at the sign on the front of the building. The usual pattern of Poke Balls and "GYM" was missing, replaced by an announcement.

'Leader Wattson is not accepting challenges today.'

"...I'm not here on League business," Steven corrected him. He turned to send the trainer, and the rest of the crowd, a smile — hoping none of his agitation had shown on his face. "It's just a coincidence."

He hoped it was, at least.

"I'm sure the Gym Leader will be back soon. You should use this chance to check that you and your Pokemon are ready," he said. "Now, if you'll excuse me..."

Before anyone could another question, he quickly ducked inside.

Aside from Wattson, the gym was still operating as normal — understudies and passing trainers facing off or discussing tactics, colorful lightning flashing between the electric barriers Wattson had chosen for his thematic decor, the thick exposed wires under the platforms humming with energy. Only the stairway in the back, leading up to the Gym Leader's arena, was sealed off.

It was easy to guess who was running the gym in Wattson's absence. Among the young trainers, the figure of a single veteran, her hair more gray than its original pale green, stood out noticeably.

"Excuse me," Steven called out, making his way to her. "I'm looking for Wattson..."

"He's not available today, please read the sign—" she started to respond, only to pause once she got a good look at him. "You're... oh. I'm his wife, Julie. Sorry, but he's really not here. He didn't tell me he had any appointment scheduled... "

"We didn't have an appointment," Steven admitted. "But it's something of an urgent matter. Is he home sick? Or did he go somewhere? I really do need to speak with him."

Wattson's wife sighed, a faint furrow in her brow. It didn't match the faint laugh lines around her eyes and mouth. "He went to New Mauville yesterday. The Square Tower lit up, so he went to make sure there weren't any issues. That was late yesterday, but he's not back yet."

Even if she didn't say it, Steven could guess that taking so long was unusual.

The entrance into New Mauville was just a little ways down Route 110, and most of the derelict power plant had been closed off. Going in to check whether something had malfunctioned shouldn't have taken overnight.

"Then I'll go look for him there," Steven decided.

"...Thanks," she said, her expression clearing a little. Reaching into the collar of her tracksuit, she pulled out a keycard on a lanyard and lifted it over her head. Holding it out to Steven, she explained, "Here, this will let you in past the gate at New Mauville. Normally, you need to have your iris pattern registered, but we do have a master pass, just in case. I'll need that back back afterwards."

"I appreciate it. I'll be sure to return it once I've spoken to Wattson," Steven promised, winding the cord and tucking into the inner pocket of his jacket. "I'll be back soon."

...He hoped.

~.~.~

The electronic gates just inside the New Mauville building beeped, flashing through a sequence of security notifications, and slowly slid open. Tucking the master keycard back into his pocket, Steven glanced at them thoughtfully before stepping through.

It seemed a bit excessive for an abandoned building. Wattson's wife had even mentioned that they were normally keyed to iris patterns. The gates were thick too, leaving no way to slip inside past them — for a human, at least.

There must have been another way for the wild Pokemon that inhabited the place to move in and out. Steven knew that the power plant's machinery had been left intact for the benefit of those Pokemon, something about the generator building a small charge even when inactive, but did machinery decades out of date really require that level of security?

...Wattson might have gotten carried away. His personality was like that.

Well, it didn't really matter. Shaking away the unnecessary questions, Steven focused on the reason he'd come.

The staircase down to the lower levels was still blocked off by yellow and black barricades, so Wattson had most likely not gone that way, at least. Circling around the glinting lights that showed the location of a few hiding wild Pokemon, Steven headed deeper into the power plant instead.

Judging by what he'd seen of the building from outside, the generator systems were in the back. That made sense, of course, but something was strange — the floor and the walls were thrumming, louder and louder as he advanced. It seemed like too much for just the small charge that might naturally build in the turbines.

Indeed, when Steven stepped into the generator room, he could see that several lights were lit on the machinery that crowded the room. Noise from the turbines spinning in the water below and from the hidden pumps echoed until it was almost deafening.

Had Wattson turned it on to check something? Still, leaving it like this might be dangerous.

Thankfully, the controls on the main terminal were simple. Tapping several keys, Steven carefully pulled down a large lever, and the generator slowly began to shut off, growing quieter until only the dull clicks of cooling metal remained.

Sighing in relief, Steven reached up to rub at his ear. The vibrations from the machinery had left his limbs tingling and slightly numb.

...But where was Wattson?

If he had really been the one to turn the generator on, he must have still been around. After all, leaving it on without anyone present would be too risky.

"Wattson?" Steven called out, turning slowly to take another look around the generator room. "Wattson, are you here?"

There was no answer.

It was hard to say if anything was out of place, given that New Mauville was clearly showing signs of its long abandonment — forgotten boxes and piles of equipment left behind in the corners, discolored streaks long the walls, broken or missing floor and ceiling tiles. Not to mention the damage from the wild Pokemon that had claimed New Mauville...

Wait. Lifting one hand to his chin, Steven trailed his gaze thoughtfully over the scuff marks and dents. He couldn't tell how recent they were, but they didn't look like something Magnemites or Voltorbs might cause. Even for a stray Electrike, it would be a stretch.

A particularly large dent had been left in the corner of a steel container in the back of the room. His footsteps echoing in the tense silence, Steven made his way to it and gingerly touched the edge of the indentation. There were more scuff marks, long trails like something had been dragged, arcing around the corner of the container into the narrow space between it and the wall.

Fingers curling around a Poke Ball, Steven edged up to the corner. The chance of anything lying in wait was very low, but all the same, he tried to muffle his footsteps and his shaky breaths, as his heartbeat pounded in his ears.

He tensed and— jumped forward to look into the gap.

It was dark, the low glow of the lights barely reaching. For a moment, Steven could only tell see an indistinct shape squeezed in the very back, against the wall.

His eyes widened as he finally realized what he was looking at.

"Wattson! Wattson, are you alright?!"

Slumped over and motionless, Wattson did not respond.

~.~.~

 **Notes:** Finally, we are on to the actual plot. I deeply apologize for how long it took.

But not without basically another OC, of course, jeez... In the games, Wattson's wife uses an Ace Trainer model, but based on her dialogue, she actually worked on New Mauville as well, which would have been "dozens" of years ago. ORAS actually doesn't have any Veteran trainers, so I'm assuming her Ace Trainer model is used in place of that.

As always, please review!

~.~.~


	4. Target

~.~.~

 **Chapter 4: Target**

Having rushed Wattson to a hospital in Mauville City, there was little else Steven could do except wait. Retreating to a corner of the waiting room, he settled for giving the Skarmory the polishing he'd promised, since he suspected he'd need its services again soon.

His strokes with the polishing cloth remained firm, but Skarmory easily noticed his lack of focus. It nudged him carefully with the dull edge of one wing. "Kaaar!" it drew out and, rustling its feathers, folded its wings.

"Sorry, sorry," Steven chuckled. "A half-hearted effort isn't worth the effort, I suppose. I'm just... worried."

That was not the right word for it. He'd passed worried a while back — for Wattson, and especially for his father.

Wattson had been poisoned, possibly by a Pokemon in battle. Most Pokemon would avoid attacking a human directly, especially a trainer with their own Pokemon present, but there could be accidents and some wild Pokemon could lash out indiscriminately. And New Mauville was normally populated only by electric types, but something else could wander in...

But it all seemed rather farfetched. No, Steven didn't think this was some unfortunate accident with coincidental timing. At this point, he could only suspect foul play.

Someone had intentionally attacked Wattson — had probably set off the alarms in New Mauville specifically to draw him out. And that someone was trying to cover their tracks, hiding whatever it was Mr. Stone and Wattson had met regarding.

Steven's head snapped up when the door to the private waiting room finally opened, and he stood quickly, returning Skarmory to its Poke Ball. Slipping inside, Wattson's wife took a moment to gather herself — sighing and dragging a hand over her face as if trying to wipe away her exhaustion — before turning to him.

"The doctors said Wattson... should recover, eventually," she said quietly, both of them letting out a quiet breath of relief. "It's poisoning, Seviper venom, they already applied the anti-venom. But he's not as young as he used to be, so they don't know when he'll wake up."

"I... see," Steven said. "That's... good to hear. I'm glad he'll be alright."

This was true. He was glad — he wasn't lying. But at the same time, it was frustrating. He wanted, needed Wattson to wake up and answer his questions. Shifting from foot to foot, he reached up to rub the back of his neck awkwardly, his need for information warring with his basic decency.

Watching him for a moment, Wattson's wife finally took pity. "I'm surprised you came," she said, "instead of your father."

Of course she would have noticed her husband suddenly being in contact with the Devon president so often. Steven frozen and met her gaze slowly. He could tell, she had already guessed that he hadn't come by just because. "...That's because my father is missing," he admitted quietly. "I thought Wattson might know something, that's why I wanted to speak with him."

"It looks pretty bad, doesn't it?" she said, smiling mirthlessly. "A disappearance, and now this... Sorry, but Wattson didn't tell me what it was all about. But... I know someone else you could try. Your father isn't the only one Wattson spent a lot of time talking to recently. He started calling Stern a lot too, always being very shady about it and looking very serious. You should try him next."

"Stern... the master of the shipyard in Slateport?"

"That's the one," she confirmed. "Those two are old coworkers, from decades ago. Maybe he knows something."

Nodding sharply, Steven turned to go — to Slateport, before something else happened — only to hesitate. "You should stay close to him," he said, "to your husband. Just in case."

"Yeah, I know," Wattson's wife said, her expression grim.

Just in case. Just in case...

~.~.~

Slateport City was just down Route 110 from Mauville, only a short flight for Skarmory. But still felt like entirely too long before they finally landed in the open square in front of the Pokemon Center, just a few blocks away from the shipyard.

Sensing his agitation and impatience, Skarmory had put its all into the flight and it didn't protest when he only gave it a distracted pat before returning it again. Later, Steven would have to make it up to his Pokemon, to Skarmory and to Metagross too, which had helped transport Wattson.

But not right now. Now, he needed to hurry.

He had been to Slateport a few times in the past, but the shipyard would have been easy to find anyway — one of the three largest buildings along the harbor, sitting between the Oceanic Museum and the long, winding path to the lighthouse. Even from the distance, Steven could see people moving in and out, hurrying on with their daily lives. It looked completely normal and peaceful...

Maybe here he'd actually be in time.

The workers rushing back and forth paid him no attention when he stepped into the shipyard, just dodging around him and continuing on their way. There didn't seem to be any reception desk either, leaving Steven just hovering uncertainly by the door, trying not to get too underfoot.

"Um... excuse me, I'm—" he tried to ask a dock worker, only to be unceremoniously ignored. "I'm looking for—"

He jumped back just in time to avoid a team of Machoke that thundered past, carrying several steel beams. That put him in the path of a sprinting courier with an armful of scroll tubes, and they knocked shoulders, making the boy spin around once before regaining his balance, all without stopping.

"S-sorry!" Steven called after to him. He backed up until his shoulder blades pressed against a wall, out of everyone's way.

"Dock!" someone called out, finally taking notice of him. "There's some rich guy here! Dock!"

"I-I'm coming! One moment!" someone else called back. And, in a somewhat feeble attempt at a stern tone, hissed, "How many times do I have to tell you, don't call important visitors 'some rich guy!'"

A smattering of laughter followed a stout, balding man as he pushed and dodged his way to the front of the building, where Steven was waiting. Wiping sweat off his forehead, he tried to smile winning, despite the nervousness showing through.

"Welcome to Stern's Shipyard!" he greeted. "I'm Dock, the floor manager. How can I help you?"

"I'm, um, looking for Stern," Steven said, still a little off balance. He jumped a little at a loud crash from somewhere deeper in the building, followed by a lot of angry shouting.

"Do you have an appointment?" Dock asked.

"No. It's... about Wattson."

The name was clearly familiar to Dock, an expression of discomfort crossing his face. "Ah... Mr. Wattson," he muttered. "Right, of course. Captain Stern should be on the second floor. Please follow me."

Hesitating, Steven looked between him and the bustling front room of the shipyard. It was a long way to the stairs in the back, and a lot of people, Pokemon, and accidents waiting to happen in between. 'Do... I really have to...?' he wondered dubiously. He'd feel more comfortable facing a Lairon stampede.

Unfortunately, he really had to.

~.~.~

It was quieter upstairs and thankfully less hectic, despite being no less busy. Heads bend over their work, the shipwrights and construction crews poured over blueprints around heavy steel tables, their voices too low to make out clearly.

Speaking to one of them, Dock turned back to Steven and gestured toward an open doorway that led onto a catwalk in the massive enclosed drydock where the ships were being assembled. "Captain Stern should be over there," he said. "Holler if you need anything."

The hangar-like drydock was large enough to hold several ships, as it did at the moment — a half-finished skeleton of a future vessel, a ferry that had been pulled up for repairs, and space to spare besides. The sound of tools against metal echoed through the cavernous building, mixing with yells from the crews and the occasional roar of an assisting Pokemon. The ceiling-mounted crates groaned as they crisscrossed the chamber.

A man was observing the hubbub from further down the catwalk. He glanced at Steven curiously as he approached but had to wait until they were nearly side by side before saying anything.

"This area is a bit dangerous, so we usually don't let visitors in here," he noted, raising his voice to be heard, despite their proximity. "So I'm guessing this is something pretty urgent."

"Yes, it is," Steven said. His expression grew serious as he remembered just how urgent things truly was. "I'm looking for Captain Stern. My name is Steven Stone."

"I'm Stern," the man confirmed. "What does Devon need?"

"It's not about Devon. Well, not precisely," Steven corrected him. "I came here to ask you about Wattson. Something happened... he might have been attacked. And I think you might know why."

Even as he said it, Steven could see that Stern indeed knew something. His brow furrowed at the mention of Wattson's name, some complicated emotion passing over his face, and he looked away, hands tightening around the safety railing. "Attacked... They're going that far?" he murmured. "Is Wattson alright?"

"He should fine," Steven said. "But there's no telling how long before he wakes up. You're the only one who knows what's going on. Please — tell me."

"I... yes. Yes, of course," Stern muttered. "There's no other choice now. We spent so long trying to bury all of it, but... if it's already gone this far..."

Bury what? What had gone this far? Steven tried to rein in his growing impatience as Stern stalled, wringing his heads and glancing down at his bustling shipyard. "Captain Stern," he prompted finally.

"Yes, of course. Right," Stern said, swallowing heavily. "I don't know the details, but I'm sure, it must have been—"

With a bang, smoke suddenly flooded the drydock below.

There didn't seem to be any sign of a fire, but the noxious smoke billowed up from somewhere on the first floor, quickly filling the air. The workers scrambled, yelling and trying to figure out what was going on.

"What the—"

"Hey, who did that?! Watch it!"

"Where's it coming from?"

"Everyone, stay calm!" Stern shouted, leaving over the railing. In the confusion, it was only natural that his conversation with Steven was completely forgotten. "Head outside! Someone, hit the kill switch! And call the fire department!"

Loud protests drifted up, though it was already hard to make out anything below through the veil of thickening smoke. Stern coughed, his throat closing before he managed to force out a command. "We need to go too!" Steven said, his voice muffled by the handkerchief he was using to cover his nose and mouth. Taking hold of Stern's arm, he pulled the older man toward the doorway back into the workrooms.

The fire alarm still hadn't gone off, he noted. It was strange, he was sure the shipyard would have some. And this smoke... it was hard to tell, but the scent and taste of it was not from something burning.

Steel types were immune, so Steven had almost missed it too. But Wattson had been poisoned, hadn't he?

Next to him, Stern was coughing again much heavier and without respite. The older man stumbled and dropped to his knees, unable to catch his breath. Steven wasn't doing much better. His eyes were watering heavily, and he struggled pull Stern back to his feet.

Groping for a Poke Ball shakily, he finally managed to get hold of the one he needed. "Go, Metagross!" he called out. His ace appeared in a flash of light, tucking its legs in and hovering the air with its psychokinetic power. Despite the chaos, it turned to look at him calmly and waited for his orders.

"Take, take him," Steven commanded, his voice catching as his throat clogged, "and head outside! Break through the wall!"

He gestured toward one section of the wall, a little ways off, where there were no supporting beams. He'd wanted to avoid damaging the building, but it didn't look like there was any choice, and the long windows near the ceiling was just too narrow for Metagross to get through. Hopefully, Stern would forgive him later.

Rumbling shortly in acknowledgement, Metagross tilted its massive body and floated toward them. It extended one leg and drew it back as it prepared to strike.

He had expected Metagross to go past then, and ducked down, covering his head and Stern against any shrapnel just in case. But the Bullet Punch that Metagross threw out was too close — just barely passing over his back, the wind ruffling his hair. Shards of the wall bounced sharply off his jacket.

"Metagross—!" Steven started to call out, reprimanding.

Then, turning, he caught sight of the crater Metagross had left in the wall behind him — and the Pokemon half-driven into the center.

It was a Seviper, its jaw hanging over in unconsciousness and showing its long, dangerous fangs. It must have slithered up silently under the smoke and reared up to strike, unnoticed. Except by Metagross, which intercepted it and now moved to hover protectively in front of Steven and Stern. The large jaw on its underside unhinging, Metagross roared in challenge and warning.

There was no accompanying command, but light flashed in the haze, returning the Seviper to its Poke Ball and its unseen trainer.

No other attack came, but Metagross couldn't carry them and stay on guard at the same time. And most of Steven's team was just too large or heavy to fit on the catwalk with them... There was only one other option. "Go, Claydol!" he called out, throwing out another Poke Ball.

Like Metagross, Claydol materialized in the air and hovered there seamlessly. Its head rotated slowly, its many eyes facing in every direction.

"Claydol, stay on guard! Metagross, let's—" Steven broke off into heavy coughing, "—g-go!"

The two Pokemon gracefully swapped places, Claydol putting itself in front of their trainer, while Metagross shifted to put point its legs forward and reared back. It rammed the wall, where Steven had indicated before, spinning like a drill and knocking a clean hole through to the outside.

Steven gratefully took a deep breath of the fresh air that started blowing through. "Come on," he encouraged Stern, pulling him along toward the opening.

Metagross had circled around after blasting through, drifting up to just below the hole and presenting its flat top as a platform. Stern stumbled through, dropping on all fours on top of Metagross, and Steven followed after him. There was just barely enough room for both of them.

"Claydol!" Steven called out, turning back to peer through the opening. "You too, come on!"

He jumped off as they neared the ground and helped Stern down. Someone had already noticed them — or, more likely, had noticed Metagross ripping its way out — and several of the workers who had evacuated the building were hurrying toward them to check on their boss. Tension radiated from Metagross as it regarded the unknown approaching humans, but Steven laid a calming hand on it, keeping it in place.

"It's okay," he assured it. "I'm okay." As Claydol drifted down as well, he checked it over quickly, trying to see if it had been poisoned by the strange gas.

It seemed they had all made it out alright, but there was no denying it now. This was no accident, or wild Pokemon attack. Someone had target Stern, and Wattson, and Steven's father. Someone with something to hide.

~.~.~

 **Notes:** Less exciting than I'd hoped, but at least we're progressing...?

As always, please review!

~.~.~


	5. History

~.~.~

 **Chapter 5: History**

Stern didn't tell anyone about what he must have guessed about the true cause of the incident. It probably made Steven look like he had overreacted, and keeping Metagross out beside him didn't help, but it would hardly be the first time he ended considered a maniac or worse. At this point, he refused to take chances.

Fortunately, everyone else in the building had evacuated safely as well, and only a few showed signs of smoke inhalation. Sending them to the nearest clinic and the rest home, Stern gestured for Steven to follow him.

"Come on," he said, "we'll use Keele's office. It's on the other side of the building and he keeps it closed, so it should be fine."

"Captain, are you sure? You were in there the longest," Dock protested, hovering over his boss fretfully. "Maybe you should get checked out too."

"I'll do that later," Stern waved him off. "For now, make sure the shutters and windows are open, so it airs out. We'll have to check all the equipment before we can get back to work, so draw up a list and make sure everyone knows what to do tomorrow."

Shooting him another worried look, Dock nonetheless complied.

It hadn't been a fault in any of the equipment, but they had to keep up appearance — or check for any signs of tampering, for that matter. They couldn't exclude that possibility, now.

Stern led the way around to the back of the building, where he unlocked a side door and slipped into a small, slightly musty office piled high with stacks of folders and rolled up charts. Closing the door behind Steven, he gestured for him to take a seat at the cluttered desk, but before he could join him, Stern broke into a heavy bout of coughing.

"Are you alright? Maybe your assistant is right," Steven said, moving to help the older man into a chair.

"I'll, I'll do that later," Stern repeated, coughing again before finally managing to calm his breathing. His face was pale, but he didn't give Steven a chance to protest further. Turning to him, he asked without preamble, "How much do you know about Mauville? Not the city, the company behind it, the same one that built New Mauville and Sea Mauville?"

"I... Not much, I'm afraid," Steven admitted. "It was shut down, maybe about thirty years ago?"

In other words, before he was even born. It was a subject he had never concerned himself with.

Stern sighed, covering his eyes for a moment, his brow furrowed painfully. "Wattson and I... and Dock too, many of my men... we worked for Mauville, before it collapsed. We weren't close then, we were on different projects, and we haven't exactly kept in touch. So I was surprised, when Wattson suddenly called me up a little while back."

"Wait... Are you saying this has something to do with the old Mauville company?" Steven guessed, trying to follow the thread of the conversation to its obvious conclusion. "Some kind of... old corporate grudge? After all this time?"

It sounded preposterous, but Stern only shook his head tiredly. "I didn't until now," he said. "But that's what Wattson wanted to ask me about — the old company. What I remembered about the upper management and the founder... Not that I could tell him much."

"Why does it matter, if the company was dissolved decades ago?" Steven wondered. "I've never even heard of it, aside from those three places, so it must have fallen apart completely, right?"

"You don't understand," Stern said. "Greater Mauville Holdings, the company behind the projects... it was just a front. No one knew who the real leader was, where the money behind it came from, nothing. We were told to obey our superiors absolutely, and no one dared to ask too many questions. And the highest management, who might have known something... they were fanatically loyal. When the company collapsed, they all disappeared."

"So then maybe Wattson thought that someone from that upper management might have reappeared, and he wanted to see if he could confirm it with you?" Steven suggested.

"This is just my guess. Wattson refused to explain," Stern said. "Maybe someone really has returned and wants to settle their grudge."

"Against you and Wattson? Against my father?"

"Wattson ruined New Mauville. He had good reasons, but he was the one who reported about the wild Pokemon living there, and that's why it was shut down," Stern said, meeting Steven's incredulous look flatly. "Everything else started falling apart after that. And Devon was Mauville's rival. Devon blocked our expansion at every turn. If Devon hadn't interfered, Mauville would have been far stronger, strong enough to withstand Wattson's betrayal."

He must have not even realized that he was doing it — calling it 'our' expansion and Wattson a traitor — but it still made something twist uneasily in Steven's gut. That was how Stern had thought out of it long ago, when he was still part of Mauville. That kind of intensity doubtlessly lay at the heart of these incidents.

"But still, to go this far, just for that? Wattson could have died!" Steven protested.

"People poured their lives into the company," Stern said, looking down at his hands. "It was all that mattered, day in and day out. An enemy of the company was unforgivable. Looking back on it, the lengths we went to were horrible. And we were just the rank and file. The management was worse. They were obsessed. After nursing that kind of grudge, against people you believe ruined your life, for thirty years..."

He shook his head.

"Be careful," he cautioned Steven.

"Me?"

"I'm not so sure I was the target," Stern said pensively. "Having a grudge against Wattson is one thing, but I was just a group leader. I don't know anything, and I never stood out. But you're digging around, asking questions... That might make someone worried."

"...I'll be fine," Steven said and gave him Stern a confident smile. "I have my Pokemon. I trust in them — I know they'll protect me."

~.~.~

But speaking with Stern and learning that he could only speculate about what Wattson and Mr. Stone had become involved in left Steven with a problem — he had run into a dead end. Staring down at his cellphone miserably, he sighed miserably and finally dialed.

It rang twice — she must have been doing something else. The life of a vice president was a busy one, after all. Then, a click on the other end, and Carat's voice demanded, "Well? What did Wattson say?"

"Good afternoon, Vice President," Steven muttered.

"Stop stalling," she shot back. "If it's taken you this long, you must have found something."

"I didn't get a chance to talk to Wattson. He was attacked," he reported. "But it looks like this has something to do with Mauville. Do you know anything about the company behind it — Greater Mauville Holdings?"

There was a short, ominous silence, as if the vice president had to take a moment to figure out what she'd yell at him about first. He could almost imagine her grinding her teeth. But in the end, whether out of pride or a sense of urgency, she didn't press at all.

"No," she replied shortly. "I don't know anything about that, aside from what I read in the papers. I was still just in school back then... I'll look into our records, there must be something. I heard they were a Devon's rival back in the day."

Steven nodded absently, even though she couldn't see him. He wasn't surprised. Thirty years ago. his great-grandfather would have still been president. Which made him wonder what Wattson had thought his father might know — or was it the other way around?

"Who started the meetings, my father or Wattson?" he asked.

"I couldn't say," Carat admitted.

The real question was who had noticed something that made them believe someone from Mauville had reemerged. There must have been something that acted as a catalyst.

If it had been Wattson who contacted Mr. Stone, they would never be able to find what sparked it, but Steven was almost sure it had been the other way around. Based on what Stern said, Wattson had only contacted him later, after the meetings with his father started. And asking Devon for help would have been something of a stretch, in any case.

No, it must have been Mr. Stone who started it.

Steven had briefly considered the possibility of a threatening letter or package, but that didn't make sense either. His father could be frustratingly independent, but he wasn't foolish enough to balk at hiring a bodyguard, if the need arose. But he hadn't, so he must have not considered there to be immediate danger to himself. Rather, he'd suspected something. He had noticed something that made him suspicious, something subtle...

"Do you remember when my father first started acting oddly? Was there anything that happened right before? Some meeting, or maybe something in the news?" Steven asked next.

There was another pause. "I don't think you understand what the president's schedule is like," Carat said. Steven thought he could hear a familiar scornful tone in her voice, but for once he didn't really care. "I can't pin it down to any single day. Both of us too busy to meet daily, so it was some time before I noticed. And he has multiple meetings or events to attend every day. It could be any of a few dozen things."

"Can you try to narrow it down? There must have been something that Dad connected to Mauville, even if it's not obvious," Steven pressed.

And that was the limit. "Steven," the vice president hissed, "what the hell is going? What do you mean, Wattson was attacked? By whom? And what's this about the old Mauville company? What does that have to do with the president disappearing?"

Steven could make an educated guess regarding who had attacked Wattson, but it didn't really matter. Poison and smokescreens — those were the trademark of a certain group. Flannery had a few of their trainees at her gym, and they also lurked around the routes in that area. The adults were harder to find, but they were rumored to sell their services to their highest bidder, even for less than savory tasks.

Not that tracking down whichever ninja had taken the contract on Wattson and Stern would help. They wouldn't reveal their employer anyway. That was a dead end.

As to what all of this had to do with his father disappearing... Steven was trying furiously to figure it out and simultaneously afraid to even think about it. Stern had suggested that it was a grudge. And Wattson being attacked made sense in that interpretation. But then why would his father just vanish?

There had to be something else to it. Steven was sure of that... and only that.

"I don't know yet," he admitted. "I'll let you know once I find out. For now, please try to find what Dad noticed. And I'll keep searching from this end."

"Wait a minute, Steven—"

Not feeling up to a lecture, he hung up.

The problem was that they didn't know what his father and Wattson knew about Mauville. Even Carat had only been a teenager thirty years ago, while Mr. Stone had already been working for Devon under his grandfather, the previous president.

So the best Steven could do was try to find out more about Mauville. There was one more place to check — the last of their old projects.

Sea Mauville.

~.~.~

 **Notes:** Hrm, the exposition didn't quite go the way I wanted, but what can you do.

Obviously, I'm making up a lot about Greater Mauville Holdings and Devon's past, but some of it is canon. Sea Mauville was supposedly closed down "dozens of years ago," which I rounded to thirty. Wattson being the one who got New Mauville closed down by reporting about wild Pokemon living there is canon. And Stern really was employed at Sea Mauville. And the previous president of Devon really was Steven's great-grandfather. Dunno what happened to his grandpa, the succession skips him for some reason.

As always, please review!

~.~.~


	6. Abandoned

~.~.~

 **Chapter 6: Abandoned**

The nature preserve, Sea Mauville, was unfortunately only open to the public during daylight hours. Between everything that had happened and the length of the flight to reach the facility from Slateport, Steven ended up having to spend the night before setting out before dawn — again.

He hadn't slept much anyway, despite sending out Claydol to stand guard just in case. All the disconnected details kept spinning in his mind, trying futilely to fit together somehow, but there was just too much missing.

Hopefully, Sea Mauville would have the answers.

The nature preserve society representative had just arrived when Steven touched down on the sharply tilted deck. She stared at him in surprise — whether because because she didn't expect a visitor so early, or because she didn't expect one in a three piece suit. But at least she hadn't noticed him circling overhead until the preserve opened. She would have certainly given him a far more dubious look then.

"Welcome to the Sea Mauville Nature Preserve," she rallied, greeting him with a practiced smile. "Is this your first time visiting? Is there anything you'd like to know about the preserve?"

He considered asking something about the history of Sea Mauville, but the chances of her telling him something deeper than the basic outline were low. "Is it alright to look around?" he asked instead.

"Of course!" the society rep told him. "Some of the rooms are still locked from the original owners, but you are free to enter them — if you can find the keys. Exploring the facility is one of our visitors' favorite pastimes. But... please be aware that part of the facility is underwater. So..." She glanced meaningfully down at his attire again. So an expensive suit was not the best choice or likely to make it out intact, she meant.

Since he had gone spelunking in the same outfit more than once, Steven only shrugged, unconcerned.

~.~.~

So early in the morning and still empty of other humans, Sea Mauville held an unnatural, eerie atmosphere. The cries of the ever-present Wingulls outside were muffled by the thick metal walls, but the in and out of the waves against the hull and even inside it echoed through the empty halls and rooms. The walls themselves groaned as well, constantly shifting and settling. Between the yellow water proof lights that left shadows in every corner and the heavy tilt of the floor, the entire structure felt surreal, like something out of a dream or another world.

Steven shivered slightly; the air inside hadn't started to warm up yet. He didn't need to worry about feeling claustrophobic, not with all his experience in small caves, but he still felt a certain unease just from being there.

Moving deeper into the facility, he tried to ignore how loudly the sound of his footsteps bounced off the walls.

Since the nature preserve had been open to the public for a long time, everything within easy reach of the entrance to the deck would have been explored and scavenged thoroughly, he figured. Indeed, all the doors stood wide open, showing only empty rooms and overturned, beat up furniture.

There was a sign on the wall that looked like a list — of floor, Steven assumed, wiping away the grime that had gathered on top of it.

"...Slogans?" he read out, squinting at the faded letters. "Say good morning very loudly... Don't bring Pokémon to your workplace..."

They appeared but normal enough at first, if rather strict, but some of the text had been crossed out or added to, changing the lower slogans into something unsettling.

"Maintain top quality, give up your sanity... Worship and praise the founder... Don't expect time off before you retire... No need to think, just work unceasingly..." Steven pulled back, frowning. "The founder again... Stern said something about that too."

He'd said that the founder's identity was unknown, but the upper management of Greater Mauville Holdings had been fanatically loyal to them. What kind of person would the workers have changed the slogans to mockingly order 'worship and praise' for?

Sea Mauville had been designed with the same sense of ambition as New Mauville and its planned 69 subterranean floors, and even with half the facility underwater — and thus unlikely to still contain anything useful, even if Steven had any Pokemon capable of diving — exploring it was a time-consuming task. Despite his experience, he had started to lose track of time as he moved through the damp, gloomy rooms and corridors, only dimly aware that voices had begun to echo down from closer to the entrance as other visitors arrived at the preserve.

He'd tried to head inward and down, to where he figured there would have been less traffic, but all he'd found so far were a moldy ID card that might have once belonged to Stern and some half-decayed old magazines, including one with a picture of Wallace's sister on the cover. It had made Steven smile for a moment, before he sighed in frustration and continued his search.

Until finally, there was one room that was different. It was unlocked as well, and just as damaged as the rest, floor tiles missing, spiderwebs eating up one corner and dark water stains across every surface.

But someone had done their best to right the cabinet against the backwall and straighten the contents within — including a Hello Skitty doll. That splash of faded pink caught Steven's eye as he was passing by.

The cabinet contained the usual assortment of stray papers — an ID card, an invoice with far too overtime reimbursement... Even though Sea Mauville had been in danger of shutdown for a good while before it was finally closed, it felt like everyone had just fled, abandoning everything where it lay.

It made Steven wonder, especially for a case like this, where even personal belongings had been left behind — the Hello Skitty doll, but also a box of neatly ordered letters in the loopy handwriting of a child, messy drawings, and a few photographs of a young boy next to his mother.

"Takao Cozmo..." Steven read the name carefully signed on one of the drawings and shook his head at the unexpected coincidence.

He understood now why some visitor had gone to the trouble of ordering this particular room. These private things felt like a small monument, too important to be left just lying around haphazardly. But even so...

"Please excuse me," Steven muttered, ducking his head in apology as he pulled out a file folder that had also been left in the cabinet.

It felt a little like trespassing, but this was the best lead he'd had so far. The papers inside were ragged, but still mostly legible, and Steven flipped through them quickly, his lips moving absently as he puzzled out the words.

"Official... statement of apology... for the loss of the Odd Keystone..." he read out slowly, filling in the blurred parts. "Um, donated...? By the Ore... Oreburgh Mine?"

Unfortunately, the rest was too damaged to make out.

But at least that was something to start with.

~.~.~

He was almost to the water line when he finally found a locked door — and, more to the point, a room that hadn't been explored yet.

The door didn't even budge slightly when he jiggled the handle. Aside from being locked, it was also probably stuck in place after so long. It was thick too, and must have once looked quite impressive, but the once-shiny nameplate next to it had been rendered illegible by time and grime.

Steven glanced around to make sure he was alone. He hadn't been told not to do this, exactly, but it definitely felt like cheating...

"Go, Armaldo," he ordered quietly, holding out a Poke Ball.

Materializing, the revived fossil Pokemon looked around curiously. It habitually opened its mouth, but seeing no opponent, paused in confusion without letting out its usual roar. Letting out a few questioning clicks, it turned to Steven for answers.

Even though it was one of Steven's smaller Pokemon, being about his height if much bulkier, its spiked tail just barely missed the wall as it wagged excitedly. It shifted slightly, and the next swing left a long, shallow scratch — accompanied by a shrill, metallic noise that made Steven wince.

"Shhhh!" he shushed his Pokemon. Armaldo copied him, leaning and growing still as all its attention focused on him. "Can you open this door? But, carefully?" Steven asked, accompanied by a double-handed gesture toward the door in question.

Armaldo tilted its head, its widely separated eyes blinking, and turned to consider the door thoughtfully. Its claws opened and closed slowly, as if mentally measuring against the task. Then, drawing one claw back, it struck. With a sharp thrust, it wedged one pincer between the door and the jamb, smashing through the lock.

Steven winced again, although he didn't blame Armaldo — there was no hiding that the room had been blatantly broken into. He really hoped no one came to investigate the noise.

Twisting slightly, Armaldo wrenched open the door, which came unstuck with an unhappy groan, and pushed it open. It paused in the open doorway, clicking to itself, before turning to Steven.

He smiled, reaching out to rub the vestigial appendages at its neck. "Good job," he praise. "Thank you."

Eyes sliding shut in pleasure, Armaldo growled happily. Its tail began to swing enthusiastically again, and Steven hurried to recall it.

The room they had broken into was dark and stale, the quality of the air making Steven grimace as he stepped inside. Even untouched by any human since Sea Mauville's closure, it was in disarray. The cabinet had fallen over, spilling its contents across the floor, and the desk had tilted as it slid along the sloping floor, drawers hanging out. Mold and water stains darkened everything to an ugly gray-brown.

Steven picked his way gingerly between the scattered papers and debris, crouching down to pick up an old, hide-bound notebook. Clicking on the pocket flashlight he always carried along, he flipped through the pages.

"The damage caused by the cancellation of the New Mauville project has been catastrophic. As a member of the management, much of the blame and the debts will fall upon me..."

It was a journal, which had once belonged to a member of the Mauville management.

"But that will be little consolation to the employees working under me who will lose their livelihoods. I couldn't do a thing for them... I'm a man with no power..." Steven read on, his brows furrowing. The sentiment was one he could understand easily. His father was the same, feeling deeply responsible for the Devon employees that put their trust in the company and its president. "Protecting nature and Pokémon and the environment, it's a fine ideal to aspire to. And Wattson is a great man for dreaming of it all. But—"

The remaining pages had been torn out.

Stern had said that people poured their lives into Mauville — sacrificed even their families and happiness. Some of the rooms Steven had passed had been not just office but dorms. People had lived on Sea Mauville, seeing nothing else day in and day out.

It was only natural that at least some of them would resent those they saw as at fault for the company's collapse. Maybe at the time they saw themselves as powerless to do anything, like the owner of the journal, and that resentment festered for decades, until something made it suddenly erupt.

That was Stern's theory, at least. But something about it still didn't add up. Sighing in frustration, Steven snapped the journal shut and looked around the room again. He needed to keep going, and yet...

Steven was used to searching patiently, digging his way through cave after cave, layer after layer, coming up empty handed time after time, until he could uncover that one beautiful stone that made it all worthwhile. But somehow, all that careful patience escaped him now. An overwhelming sense of frustration welled up, choking, in his chest. Was there even something to find here? Or was he just wasting time — time he didn't have, his father didn't have.

A sharp sting of pain made him realize he was biting his lip hard enough to draw blood.

Drawing a shuddering breath, he tried to focus.

Most of the files scattered across the office were obviously too damaged to be of any use, he reasoned, moving the beam of his flashlight across the room slowly. So anything on the floor was a write off. The cabinet had emptied out when it tipped over. That left only the desk.

As the facility had begun to tilt over the years, the desk — along with the rest of the room's contents — had slowly slid down the incline. The drawers, too, had rolled out, revealing their contents.

...Except one. Steven's eyes narrowed, and he reached out to tug experimentally at the drawer's handle. It rattled but didn't open.

'A locked drawer... That just might be it,' he thought.

Shifting his flashlight between his teeth, he fished in his jacket's inner pockets for the small array of miniature hand tools he managed to squirrel away. Among them was a chisel. Wedging it in the gap between the drawer and the desk right over the lock, he gave it a firm tap with the heel of his hand and, when the drawer bent but did not open, another.

The lock finally shattered, sending the drawer shooting out. The contents clattered noisily as it bumped against Steven, coming to a stop.

A few bottles of pills, the labels long since worn off, an old-fashioned key, a small stone that Steven eyed with interest — and a folder, CONFIDENTIAL stamped across it in large letters that were still readable despite the stains.

Unfortunately, the documents inside were not so lucky. There wasn't a single word that remained completely untouched by damage, and the header was completely gone in a dark smear. Steven peered at the paper with a frown.

"The develop... ment on new... turned out to be true," he read slowly. "The... hm... that uses... Pokémon...? bio... energy is called... ah."

It was a report about Infinity Energy.

"So they were investigating Infinity Energy," Steven muttered to himself.

There had been other reports in the folder as well, but he couldn't even begin to decipher them. Dropping the folder onto the desk, he pocketed the key and the stone, just in case. Packing up his tools again, he looked around the office one last time, but there didn't seem to be anything else worth checking.

He felt increasingly doubtful that the rest of the facility held any other useful clues. But the only other thing he could do would be to go back to Rustboro and try to help the vice president sift through what his father had been doing before this started — an even less encouraging prospect. He might as well check the rest of Sea Mauville, Steven supposed. There wasn't much left above water...

Stepping out into the hallway, Steven stopped suddenly.

He thought he had seen something, at the end of the corridor. Another visitor? Just a shadow? He couldn't hear anything except the echo of distant voices and waves against the hull. Had he imagined it?

With everything else that had happened, he couldn't help reaching for his Poke Balls, just in case. The corridors were too narrow for Metagross or Aggron, and Skarmory didn't do well in enclosed spaces, but maybe Cradily—

An explosion rocked Sea Mauville, throwing Steven against the wall. The entire facility shuddered and, with a deafening, unceasing screech of metal giving way, began to tilt over.

It seemed Stern had been right. They really had been after Steven all along.

~.~.~.

 **Notes:** Obviously, I changed the layout of Sea Mauville a bit. It has to be bigger that what we see, and I didn't want to fuss around with finding the room keys anyway. The powerless man's journal is a bit longer in the game, but I decided to chop out some bits. Eh, canon, whatever. Who cares about that, right?

As always, please review!

~.~.~.


	7. Proof

~.~.~.

 **Chapter 7: Proof**

Groaning painfully, Sea Mauville continued to tilt — not further backward, toward its already sunken rear, but onto one side. The port-side supports must have given out...

Or rather, they had been destroyed intentionally.

Steven had grabbed hold of an exposed beam to steady himself after the initial explosion, but he didn't have the chance to do anything else before the floor had already slanted too far for him to stand. Twisting with a curse, he managed to find purchase on the wall, just in time before the entire facility jerked and shuddered again as it hit the water broadside.

"Guh!" Steven groaned between clenched teeth as he was jarred by the impact. Rubble rained down from above, and there was a distant sound of some section giving way completely.

He coughed and shook his head, trying to shake off the ringing in his ears. The yellow lights put up by the nature preserve society were flickering, more and more of the floor disappearing every time they lit up the hallway. This corridor was a short inner one, but the sound of rushing water flooding through the facility was getting close.

'I need to get out of here,' Steven thought, 'before this area ends up underwater too.'

There wasn't any point in worrying about causing damage now. "Go, Metagross!" Steven called out, pulling out a Poke Ball. And immediately, before it had even fully materialized — "Mega Evolution!"

Metagross appeared in a burst of prism energy, just over Steven's position. The hallway wouldn't have fit it, but the power lashing out from its evolution caved the already weakened walls around it, creating a bubble of empty space.

"Hold still!" Steven ordered.

As Mega Metagross obediently hovered in place, even using its psychic power to bounce the falling rubble away from them, Steven quickly calculated the distance between them — and leaped.

He just made it, grabbing hold of Mega Metagross's rear legs. As he wrapped his arms more securely around the large claw, Metagross obligingly gripped back, its other claws shifting to close around him. "Blast out of here! Don't hold back!" Steven yelled.

It was a tall order, and he knew it. Metagross itself could tear through Sea Mauville easily, especially with the power of its Mega Evolved form. But with a passenger? Compared to Pokemon, humans were terribly fragile.

However, Steven trusted Metagross. It was his ace for a reason.

Water was already flooding the end of the corridor below them, and it wouldn't be long before this section ended up underwater. Without prompting, Mega Metagross rotated to face what had been the ceiling — the shortest path outside. Energy gathered around it, crackling over Steven's skin and making him wince at the sensation of almost numbness.

With a roar, Mega Metagross unleashed its Giga Impact. Its massive sharp claws, brought together in a point like a drill, tore easily through the ceiling and the upper floor of Sea Mauville and burst through into the open air outside.

They had just made it. The whole they'd created was swallowed up by the sea a moment later.

Most of Sea Mauville had already sunk beneath the waves, only the front starboard corner still jutting out into the air. The sea in the area was not terribly deep, so perhaps it would remain above water in the end, but for now the facility was still sinking further.

Many of the precious mangroves that had grown atop the facility's rear had been dragged under as well. Steven gritted his teeth, fury beginning to boil now that he was safe.

"Over there!" he called out, pointing toward a nearby sandbar.

The preserve society representative was already there, herding the terrified visitors with the help of a Pokemon ranger. A few of their Pokemon, Wailmer, a Corphish, and a pair of Illumise and Volbeat, circled around worriedly. Seeing his approach, they quickly cleared an empty spot, where Steven jumped down lightly.

"Did everyone get out alright?" Steven asked the ranger and the rep without preamble.

"Y-yes, I think so," the representative said, wringing her hands. "Counting you, I saw only five visitors arrive..." Him, the young couple, a sailor and a young boy with an inner tube — that was five. "No one went far in yet... But I might have missed someone. Visitors don't have to check in with me, and sometimes they come in from the other side..."

Steven nodded sharply. "I'll check around for anyone else."

"Thank you so much!" The rep bowed deeply. "I-I don't know what could have happened, the safety inspections said everything was stable..."

Unsure what to tell her, Steven turned back to Metagross. "Let's go," he ordered shortly, jumping on top of his Pokemon as it hovered down to his level. It felt like he was running away — which wasn't far off. Guilt gnawed at him. After all, he had been the target.

But to think they would go this far... For the first time, Steven admitted to himself that he might be in over his head.

~.~.~

Neither Armaldo, swimming down into the submerged sections, nor Skarmory, circling overhead, found anyone else at the Sea Mauville wreckage. Metagross too didn't sense anyone. That was the best Steven could hope for, in the situation.

While he had searched, several boats had arrived, gathering around the sandbar. A camera crew was among them, already filming away against the backdrop of Sea Mauville's few remaining surface sections. The camera turned toward him as soon as he landed to give the nature society rep and the ranger his report. Steven grimaced, knowing his face would be all over the news after this.

"Mr. Stone! You were helping search for anyone trapped by the sudden collapse at Sea Mauville — were you present when the incident occurred?" the reported shot off, rapid fire, jabbing her mic toward him like a weapon. "What was it like? And what brought you to Sea Mauville so early today?"

"Excuse me, I need to go," Steven declined, turning away hurriedly. "Skarmory!"

It was a blatant and suspicious escape, but he couldn't think of anything better. Not to mention that spending too long around others might very well put them in danger if his unknown enemies attacked again. It would be better to lie low, at least for now. That way, he'd only need to worry about protecting himself.

His cellphone began to ring furiously halfway back to the main island. Glancing at the display name, Steven felt a deep sense of dread.

"What the hell happened?! Are you alright?"

"Hello, Vice President," Steven replied blandly, his ear ringing a little. Then, only just registering her second question, he added, "I'm fine."

"Well, that's something at least," Carat sighed. The frustration in her voice probably meant she was already pinching the bridge of her nose to drive off her building headache. "I don't know how I'd face Joseph if something happened to you."

"Uh..." Steven floundered for a moment, having not expected this sentiment from her, before clearing his throat awkwardly. "You must have seen — Sea Mauville collapsed. I didn't see them, but I'm certain that it was caused intentionally to attack me. The attack on Stern's Shipyard must have been aimed at me as well."

"Attack on Stern's Shipyard..." the vice president muttered, sounding more annoyed than surprised. He hadn't mentioned it to her before.

"I don't think it's good idea for me to come back to Rustboro, given the situation," he went on. "I have a portable PC with me, so I'll find a place to set up a secret base for now and see if there's anything else I can follow up on."

"I don't like it," Carat said flatly. "Come back to headquarters, we can strengthen security here and maybe catch them if they try anything else."

Steven shook his head before remembering that she couldn't see him. "No," he amended. "I have my Pokemon, they've protected me well this far. You should do that anyway, they might come after you too. Are you a trainer?"

"...I'm not. I never had the time for it, most company leaders don't," she admitted, apparently realizing there was no point in arguing with him. She couldn't force him to obey her, after all. "Just... be careful."

"Um... yes," Steven agreed, the back of his neck itching in discomfort. He couldn't quite reconcile this sudden concern with her usual disdain. Didn't she hate his guts? This was why he preferred rocks and Pokemon to people. At least in battle, everything was clear. "You, uh, you too."

He hung up quickly, again.

~.~.~

To give himself a playing field advantage — and because it made him most comfortable, to some extent — Steven set up his temporary base in one of the many small caves off Route 111. Aggron stood guard by the entrance, seemingly dozing but perfectly aware of everything around it.

Steven was occupying his time quickly reading through everything he could about Great Mauville Holdings and everyone involved, but in truth he was stuck waiting — for Wattson to wake up, for Carat to find something, for a call back from his best remaining lead.

He almost wished that there would be another attack. At least, with no one else around to worry about, he could focus on catching the culprits. Of course, if they were really ninja, they probably wouldn't give up any information about their employer...

Sighing heavily, Steven reached up to rub at his eyes. It was getting late. He should at least get his sleeping bag ready, he supposed, and set up a rotation between his Pokemon for the night watch.

Was there anything else? It was hard to concentrate and think.

Steven jumped when his phone began to ring.

"Steven Stone here," he replied automatically, but he had recognized the number — it was a call he had been waiting for. "Roark? Did you find something already?"

"We haven't exactly had a lot of Odd Keystones pass through here," the voice from the other end chuckled lightly, "even going back thirty years. There was only one that was given away in the right timeframe."

"To Greater Mauville Holdings?" Steven demanded, his fingers tightening around his phone.

"Well, that's the interesting part," the Oreburgh Mine supervisor said. "The records are very unclear. I'm tempted to say that something not entirely above board was going on... But I did find something — a commemorative photo. I scanned it and sent it over. Did you get it?"

"Hang on," Steven twisted toward the portable PC, updating his mailbox. Indeed, there was new message there, with an image attachment. Double-clicking, he waited for it to load. "It's..."

An old, yellowed photograph of several people, and in the forefront, a man and a woman shaking hands as they smiled for the camera. He didn't recognize the man, bearded and dressed in the clothes of a miner, but the woman... she was familiar.

Even in the grainy, blurred photo, the resemblance was unmistakable. Hair all black, a woman's hakama and boots instead of just a kimono, but she looked almost exactly like Murasaki. There was even a Mawile next to her.

Steven swallowed heavily.

"...Thanks," he managed faintly. "This is... exactly what I needed."

The proof of what his father had seen, the one behind everything.

~.~.~

"—Speculation continues about the cause of Sea Mauville's sudden collapse early this morning," the news anchor reported, footage of the facility's remains playing next to her. "Devon Corporation has declined comment on any knowledge they may have of the situation, despite the presence of a representative on the scene."

The footage expanded to fill PokeNav's entire screen, shifting to zoom in on a trio of figures — two women and a young man, who turned to face the camera as the reporter on the scene approached quickly.

"Mr. Stone! You were helping search for anyone trapped by the sudden collapse at Sea Mauville — were you present when the incident occurred?" the reported asked, holding out her microphone. "What was it like? And what brought you to Sea Mauville so early today?"

The answer to her first question was fairly obvious. Steven himself hadn't noticed at the time, but his suit looked far worse for wear, the shoulders and pant legs ripped up quite badly by the falling debris and the dark material of the whole thing several shades lighter from the dust. Dry blood was matted in a dark streak through his hair and flaked from a shallow cut on his cheek.

"Excuse me, I need to go," Steven declined, already hurrying away.

The footage cut off, showing the studio and the anchor again.

"The nature preservation society has released a statement that the most recent safety inspection, two months prior, showed no imminent danger. An indepth investigation has been initiated—"

Murasaki snapped the PokeNav shut, cutting off the rest of the news report. "Do you understand, Joseph? Please don't underestimate how far I'm willing to go," she said. "I would prefer to keep this clean, but if you continue to be so obstinate... next time, he won't get away with just a few scratches."

In front of her, Mr. Stone stared back coldly.

While the only marks on him were a few yellowing bruises, the president of Devon had certainly seen better days. There were bags under his eyes and a gauntness to his face that spoke of recent, sharp weight loss. More than a light stubble bristled over his jaw.

However, his expression remained unwavering and hard.

Murasaki sighed, looking more exasperated than troubled. "You're making this unnecessarily difficult," she chided. "Or is the life of your only child worth that little to you?"

This time, even Mr. Stone couldn't hide a subtle twitch in his expression. He glared back defiantly. "Even if I wanted to tell you, I don't know the answer," he said.

"Oh? I doubt that. Alexander must have told you. He was that sort of man," Murasaki said. "Especially when he was on his last legs. He would have entrusted everything you, his grandson and successor. I will give you one more chance to reconsider. After this, I won't just threaten. Now, tell me — the secrets behind the origin of Infinity Energy."

Following her darkening tone, the two Pawniard that had accompanied her as guards stepped forward menacingly. Their arm blades gleamed in the dim yellow lights of the small room, jabbing toward him.

Nonetheless, Mr. Stone didn't waver or show any hint of weakness as he continued to meet her gaze. And, after a moment, Murasaki leaned back, her expression smoothing out again.

"If that's the way you want to play it..." she said, shrugging lightly. "But remember, you can put an end to this at any time."

With those parting words, she turned away and walked away, the Pawniard following obediently. As the automated door slid open, light from the corridor beyond flooded into the room. The electronic lock beeped as she passed a key card over it, and the door slid shut again, locked.

The room was left in silence, until Mr. Stone let out a heavy sigh, dropping his head in his hands. "Steven... I'm so sorry."

~.~.~

 **Notes:** Thus, the villain. I mean, having the villain appear as an early NPC is tradition, right? Anyway, it might not be immediately obvious, but Steven is off on a few of his assumptions. But we're headed into the last stretch, so things'll get cleared up in the next chapter or two.

As always, please review!

~.~.~


	8. Checkmate I

~.~.~

 **Chapter 8: Checkmate I**

There was long, ominous silence from the other end of the line.

"Steven," the vice president said flatly, in the tone that had always made him cower a little inside, "why are you asking about the Aeon Fund?"

It was obvious she had at least an inkling of the answer. Of course, it wasn't exactly hard to guess. "The first meeting with them, it was just before my father started acting off, right? And he was the one who attended?" Steven repeated, blatantly ignoring her question.

She didn't reply — but that wasn't a no, which was as good as a yes.

"I thought so," Steven muttered. "It's starting to line up..."

Devon had been aiming to gain the support of the Aeon Fund, one of the wealthiest investment groups in Hoenn, for some time. They had finally secured a meeting to present their proposal a few weeks back... just before Mr. Stone had started acting oddly. He had been the one to represent Devon at the meeting, and he must have seen her then — Murasaki, who looked so much like the woman in the old photograph.

A relative, Steven supposed. A daughter? He didn't know what interests Mauville had been pursuing in Sinnoh, but whoever had been sent there must have been a high-level executive, one his father had met before.

Had they said something to each other? Something make Mr. Stone concerned enough to start digging?

And why had she come to Devon again, even knowing that his father wouldn't be there? ...Had she been aiming to meet Steven himself all along? Why? Had she been laughing inside all along while smiling at him and making small talk—?

Steven had met his share of two faced people, whether ambitious trainers or businessmen, who tried to get close to him just to use him, but he had done his best to avoid those sides of both Devon and the Pokemon League. He hadn't expected it, and it was enough to make him see red. His teeth ground painfully as he struggled to get himself under control.

"Where are you? Nevermind, just come back to Rustboro, now," the vice president ordered sharply over the phone. "We need to decide how to proceed—"

"You don't need to do anything. I'll handle it," Steven cut her off. "It would be bad for Devon to make a fuss, right? Especially since it's not like we have any evidence. I'll go to their headquarters myself and... deal with it."

"That's ridiculous," Carat snapped. "Go alone? And do what? What if something happens to you too? I could never face the president if I let you do something so insane."

"I have my Pokemon, so I'll be fine," Steven insisted. He should have stopped there and just hung up again, but, distracted, he kept going. "You don't have to tell my father you knew anything about it. It's not as if it would be a problem for you if something did happen to me."

As soon as the words were out, he knew it had been too bitter. It wasn't even her he was angry at, just at everything about this — the stupid corporate politics, the grudges and obsessions, the fact that his family had been dragged into it and he still didn't even know if his father was alright.

He cringed, anticipating the tonguelashing he was about to rightfully receive... but there was nothing.

Instead, Carat only sighed, sounding exhausted enough to make Steven feel even guiltier. "I suppose I deserve that. I've let my feelings affect the way I behaved toward you," she said. "I'm sorry for that. It wasn't right."

Steven choked and minced words, completely taken off guard. "Th-th-that's... uh, well... thank you? It's not a problem, I mean. I mean... uh..."

On the other end of the line, the vice president chuckled quietly. "So don't do anything crazy. If you're right, you'd be walking into the Pyroar's den. Just sit tight for a while and look after yourself. I'll figure out the best approach."

"...Do you have a plan?" Steven asked quietly.

"Not yet," she admitted. "But I'll think of something."

~.~.~

The Aeon Fund's headquarters were located off Route 112, between Mauville and Lavaridge. They owned a large tract of land there, untouched aside from a long, winding driveway that led up to the gates of a very traditional mansion that served as the fund's main building and a guest house that supposedly used housed the most elderly or terminally ill members who had no family to care for them.

Nothing looked out of place from Skarmory's back, even after circling overhead several times. Banking, Skarmory landed smoothly just in front of the gates and braced itself as Steven dismounted.

He tugged at his ascot and ran a hand through his hair, fixing the small disorder caused by the winds during flight. He'd taken the time to wash up and chance into a new suit while his Pokemon were resting — not so much out of concern for appearances, but mostly out of habit.

When he looked toward the gates again, a servant had appeared in the shadow of the entrance arc. A woman in the kimono and apron of a traditional maid bowed low as he approached.

"Welcome, sir," she said demurely. "The mistress is waiting inside."

Steven didn't bother to respond, striding past. His back itched uneasily as the maid fell in step behind him, but he didn't let his expression or posture change. Up ahead, another maid waited in front of the main entrance, and beckoned him down the side path toward the gardens.

The screen doors on the veranda had been opened, letting light and fresh air into the large tatami room beyond. That was where Murasaki knelt, hands folded in her lap as she waited.

When their eyes met, Steven came to a stop, the two maids behind him following suite.

"That will be all," Murasaki said, without breaking her gaze.

Neither of them moved as the maids departed silently. The only sound was the sharp click of a bamboo fountain somewhere among the artfully arrayed stones and plants.

She smiled suddenly, as mild as during their meeting — but the secretive undertone was all too obvious now. "It's a pleasure to have you here," she gave a pointless platitude. "What brings you here, Steven? Is there something we can do for you?"

The false politeness was grating, and Steven glared, gritting his teeth. "Tell me where my father is," he ordered without preamble.

He had expected her to at least dance around the issue and pretend to know nothing for a while longer, but Murasaki's smile widened, even as she half covered it with one hand. "Well," she said, chuckling. "You certainly don't waste time, do you? But I can appreciate that."

She rose to her feet gracefully, making Steven take a step back. But there was nothing in her hands, and she made no move toward him, only continuing to smile to herself.

So... a trap. "Tell me where my father is, right now," Steven repeated, holding up a Poke Ball threateningly. He drew back his arm to throw—

Something held him back. An iron grip had closed around his wrist, as someone appeared behind him completely unnoticed. Craning his neck to look back over his shoulder, Steven caught a glimpse of a dark face mask — one of the ninja, then. They trained not only their Pokemon, but themselves as well, so hiding themselves and lying in wait must have been trivial for them.

The ninja twisted Steven's arm roughly behind his back and deftly caught the Poke Ball as it dropped from his hand. Steven winced, the pain shooting up his arm and through his shoulder almost enough to send him to his knees.

"At least you saved me the trouble of having to hunt you down," Murasaki said, her voice and smile amused as she stepped out onto the veranda and looked down on him. "So you want to know where your father is? Why don't I take you to him?"

She jerked her chin — an order to the ninja behind him.

There was a sharp pain across the back of his neck. Then, darkness.

~.~.~

Everything felt stuffed and slow. His head was pounding, making him shy away from returning to consciousness, even as light insistently filtered in through his closed eyelids.

The steady click of heels against metal approached, stopping just beside him. It was enough to pull Steven back to consciousness, however grudgingly. He blinked muzzily, grimacing as pain spiked through his skull. He was sore too, the half of his body that had been pressed against the floor tingling unhappily as he tried to sit up.

His arms wouldn't move — tied behind his back. That explained why his shoulders felt so terrible, at least.

"Good, you're up," a woman's voice commented, from next to him. It took Steven a long moment to realize who she was. With that, the memories of how he'd ended up in this situation came tumbling back, along with the realization of what had happened.

Rising to his knees, Steven glared up at Murasaki.

The harsh yellow lights stripped away any remaining hints of her mild-mannered facade. Her expression was cold and sharp as she looked down on him. Even her entire bearing had changed, the prideful line of her shoulders emphasized by the Poke Ball holster she'd used to tie back her long sleeves, and the boots she had changed into were planted in a proud, wide stance.

It all made her look even more like the woman in the old photograph.

"Steven..."

The sound of his name made him jump. He hadn't even realized that another person was in there with them. And it was—

"Dad!"

Mr. Stone caught Steven as he stumbled from trying to rush to his feet. Murasaki hadn't bothered tying him up, and he looked exhausted and worried but most importantly... alive. As his father steadied him, Steven slumped in a sudden wash of relief.

It was foolish. The situation was hardly anything to be relieved about — Murasaki was standing nearby, watching patiently, and now that he was paying more attention, he noticed that not only was her Mawile at her feet, but several Pawniard stood guard around them and Magnemite hovered menacingly overhead.

But at least he finally knew that his father was still alive. "Dad..." he sighed, his voice shaking. Wryly, he thought, 'At this rate, I might as well start crying too...'

Mr. Stone's hands tightened around his shoulders as he bowed his head. His voice was shaking too. "Steven, I'm so sorry," he muttered. "This is all my fault. I never wanted you to become involved in this or in Devon's secrets..."

"Then you should have told me what I want to know from the start," Murasaki cut in, reminding them both of her presence. "You're the one who dragged it and made me go this far. And now, this poor boy is going to pay the price."

"What are you planning? And what are you after?" Steven demanded.

His legs were still a bit unsteady from whatever the ninja had done to knock him out, but he straightened, letting his father take a step back and turn to face Murasaki as well.

"Do you truly intend to go this far for something as petty as revenge for your family?" he went on.

"My family?" Murasaki repeated, raising her eyebrows slightly in puzzled amusement. "And revenge? Oh, I see. So that's what must have happened... But you've misunderstood something. It wasn't a relative of mine that was the founder of the old company and Greater Mauville Holdings. It was me."

~.~.~

 **Notes:** This chapter was originally supposed to include the entirety of this scene, but Murasaki just kept talking... for an entire chapter worth of content... so I decided to cut it here. I hope you're ready for that. Next time! On! Zeta Episode!

As always, please review!

~.~.~


	9. Checkmate II

~.~.~

 **Chapter 9: Checkmate II**

Steven spluttered and stared in shock. "That can't be right!" he protested.

No matter how he looked at it, the woman in front of him couldn't be that old. Aside from the single gray streak in her hair, she looked only Carat's age, and the vice president had said it herself — she had still been in school back then. If Murasaki was really the one in the photograph from Oreburgh, that would make her easily older than even his father.

No matter how gracefully she'd aged, that was too much.

Murasaki was watching him in amusement. "It's true," she said. "I even met Joseph for the first time back then. I hadn't expected him to remember me. It was my mistake to attend the meeting with Devon in person, but I had wanted to see if I could find out what I wanted without all of this fuss. So I tried asking subtly back then..."

It hadn't worked, of course. Instead, Mr. Stone had been immediately suspicious and tried to find out the reason for her reappearance. She shrugged one shoulder as it to say, 'what can you do.'

"I keep telling you, I don't know!" Mr. Stone protested. "I don't know anything about the origins of Infinity Energy!"

"Infinity Energy?" Steven repeated. True, there had been documents about them looking into that at Sea Mauville, but... "You're still after that?"

Murasaki sighed. "You're misunderstanding again. I was never after revenge. And I don't care about Infinity Energy either. There are many forms of energy nowadays. Infinity Energy is just the watered down version of something far greater."

"It was made safe," Mr. Stone snapped. He sounded more offended than Steven would have expected. "The previous president made that horrible legend into something for the future of people and Pokemon!"

Waving her hand, Murasaki dismissed his protests with an expression of disinterest. "You've been to Kalos, so you should know it," she said to Steven instead.

"...You're talking about the legend of the Ultimate Weapon," Steven surmised.

"That's right. Before you get carried away, I don't care about the weapon," Murasaki said, smirking. "But there's another part to that legend — the fate of the king who created and used it. Do you know what that is?"

Frowning, Steven searched his memory. To be frank, he hadn't been particularly interested in local folklore, only the local rocks. "He was cursed to wander the world for eternity," he recalled finally, "ageless and immortal..."

"It looks like you're finally on the right path," Murasaki noted mockingly, as his expression shifted to disbelief again.

"You're saying you want to obtain immortality?"

"Is that so strange? Money, power, influence, all those things can be regained after being lost," Murasaki said. "I lost Mauville, yes, but I can rebuilt it. All I need is time. Time and life are the only things we can never gain more of... except in that legend. Ultimate Weapon — that's what everyone remembers, but originally, it was a machine of life. It took the lives of many Pokemon to give back life that had been lost and to bestow eternity. That's what I want."

She spread her hands, not grandiose but as if offering her logic up for examination.

"So then... you've already started down that path, is that it?" Steven guessed.

"I spent years in Kalos, trying to find out everything I could, and I've been able to recreate that machine to some extent," Murasaki explained. "But it's incomplete. The flaws are already starting to show through."

Reaching up, she ran her fingertips along the white streak in her neatly pinned back black hair.

"I don't mind having a more stately look, but any more than this, and my body will start to break down," she went on. "I need to find out what I'm missing. There must have been something I wasn't able to uncover in Kalos. But Alexander figured out the Ultimate Weapon completely, enough to strip apart and change the properties of its power."

"I keep telling you, I don't know!" Mr. Stone interrupted. "The previous president didn't share those things with me — if he even knew himself!"

"I don't believe you," she responded flatly. "At the very least, you'll tell me everything you do know. Or I'll finish this right here and now."

Instinctively, Steven took a step forward at the threat, but his father pulled him back quickly. There was nothing they could do — when he moved, her Pawniard extended their blades menacingly, ready to retaliate if either of them threatened their leader. In a match up between someone with Pokemon and someone without, the former always had the same overwhelming, nigh-insurmountable advantage.

Murasaki snorted quietly, shooting them a mocking look. Turning, she motioned to her Mawile, which obediently held up the metal case it had been holding.

Even before the case opened, Steven could guess what was inside. The shape and size were familiar to any professional trainer — just large enough for a full team's six Poke Balls. Murasaki's own Poke Balls were clipped to her shoulder harness, so these...

They were his. A cold shiver went down his spine, even as he ground his teeth in helpless anger.

"The Ultimate Weapon — the machine of life — took the lives of many Pokemon," Murasaki said conversationally, without lifting her eyes from Steven's team. Her fingertips skimmed the polished, lightly scratched curves of the Poke Balls, until she finally chose one and pulled it out of the half-circle indentation. "That was its power source."

"It was a terrible thing," Mr. Stone muttered. "That's why the previous president changed it to create Infinity Energy."

Murasaki ignored him. Turning away, she headed toward the edge of the metal platform they were on and the machine that was embedded there. For the first time, Steven took the time to study their surroundings — a massive round chamber with a high ceiling and the floor a story down from the wide catwalk that ran around the perimeter. A unknown device pointed downward from the center of the ceiling like a giant metallic bud, toward a circular platform below. There was something in the center, but Steven couldn't make it out through the platform's grating.

When she tapped a few buttons on the console, the large device on the ceiling began to hum, quietly but growing louder.

At a sharp gesture from their trainer, a trio of Magnemite descended down to the ground level, their magnets spinning anxiously.

Preparations — for what? — complete, Murasaki turned back to her prisoners. "It only makes sense that the energy to control life would come from life. It's the same in the old myths of Kalos's legendary Pokemon, Yveltal and Xerneas," she continued her previous point. "So I used the same principle when attempting to recreate that power."

Behind her, the Magnemite were slowly rising back up, the strange object that had been in the center of the lower level platform propped up and precariously balanced between them.

Steven started at it uncertainly. It looked like... a statue. A stone statue of a Manectric — an elderly one, judging by the thick, bristly fur on its chest and jaws. The level of detail was certainly impressive, but Steven couldn't help feeling a deep sense of unease at the way the Pokemon was depicted, curled out as if to protect itself from some blow, its jaws parted in a mournful howl.

The statue dropped down onto the metal platform with a dull clunk, the Magnemite withdrawing quickly.

"Did you know? One of the services the Aeon Fund provides to our eldest members is looking after their Pokemon when they pass on," Murasaki said conversationally. "Many of them don't have any immediate family, and they don't want to leave their precious companions to spend their last days forgotten in a Day Care."

"...Why are you bringing that up?" Steven asked.

"You're not very quick, are you?" she sighed.

No... he knew what she was getting at. But he didn't want to acknowledge it.

"You went that far?" Mr. Stone demanded coldly. "Pokemon are living beings too! And yet you..."

"I drained the life energy of those old Pokemon and used it to extend my life," Murasaki confirmed. Reaching out, she patted the head of the stone statue. "By the way, this was the latest one. They always end up like this. There's another legend in Kalos, about Yveltal and what happens to those who—"

"Have you lost your mind?!" Steven burst out, cutting her off. "How can you do that to Pokemon? To Pokemon who were entrusted to you! You— You have a Pokemon you love too, don't you? How can you do something like that?!"

Chittering angrily, the Pawniard guards jumped between him and their master with their blades extending at the ready. Steven didn't even react to their show of force, glaring balefully at Murasaki.

She met his glare calmly, eyebrows rising in surprise again. "A Pokemon I love?" Murasaki repeated. "Do you mean these things? Or that one?" She tilted her head toward her Mawile, which watched the exchange with its usual faint smirk. "You've got it wrong... again. It's all just business. They're my subordinates, and this one is my partner, another liar like me. In some ways, Pokemon are far more reliable than humans... Certainly far more loyal."

A dark frown passed over her features. Perhaps she was thinking of Wattson, who had chosen his ideals over the company and, indirectly, the founder — her.

"But there aren't any feelings involved," Murasaki went on, her expression smoothing out again. "Not like you. You love your Pokemon very much, don't you? I hope you love them enough to convince your father to cooperate, boy."

Turning his Poke Ball over in her hand, she tossed it into the center of the chamber. In a burst of light, it released the Pokemon inside it — a Carbink that spun around as it appeared to look at its trainer in confusion.

It was the newest of Steven's Pokemon, which he'd picked up during his visit to Kalos. It was still too new to read the situation, where any of Steven's others would have immediately understood that something wasn't right and that their trainer was in danger. It hesitated—

The machinery below hummed loudly, and a crackling force field formed around the center platform. Noticing it too late, the Carbink bumped against it. A bolt of energy arced through the Pokemon, making it squeal in pain and backpedal quickly.

"Carbink!" Steven yelled in worry.

"Well, let's begin," Murasaki said calmly, reaching out to tap a button on the console behind her.

The device in the center of the ceiling began to glow, its surface splitting into several narrow arms that opened up like a flower. The air between them rippled, thick with some unseen energy.

Underneath it, Carbink slumped suddenly, plummeting before it managed to regain its levitation. Moaning miserably, it squeezed its round eyes shut and shuddered.

"Carbink!" Steven called out again frantically. His head snapping toward Murasaki, he glared again. "Stop it! Stop!"

"That's not up to you," Murasaki said calmly. "It's up to your father. I told you, I didn't want to resort to this, but I won't stop unless he finally decides to cooperate and tell me what I want to know."

Helpless, Steven turned to his father. His face twisted in anguish, beseeching.

"I told you, I don't have anything to tell you! I don't know anything about it!" Mr. Stone protested futilely.

"That's fine, then," Murasaki said, shrugging indifferently. "At the very least, I'll gain some strong life energy — by draining each of his Pokemon, then him, then you. So... what will it be?"

~.~.~

 **Notes:** Man, Murasaki just wouldn't stop talking... And proves her villainy by killing puppies, almost literally. Anyway, this is why it's called "Zeta Episode," as a reference to XY, which plays a role in the backstory per ORAS tradition. I also considered Chi (X) Episode and Upsilon (Y) Episode, but they don't really evoke X and Y, and the names are kind of dorky, so Zeta Episode it became.

As always, please review!

~.~.~


	10. Turnabout

~.~.~

 **Chapter 10: Turnabout**

Steven allowed himself to be escorted away quietly, his head bowed and expression blank. Still tied behind his back, his clenched fists trembled, nails cutting into the palms.

His father had caved under Murasaki's threats, of course. Mr. Stone valued the lives of Pokemon, and he knew how much Steven treasured his team. It was also entirely too obvious that she would do exactly as she said — she'd kill them too, if he continued to refuse.

Not that there was any proof that she wouldn't kill them after she had what she wanted. Which meant they had only until then to make their escape.

At least Murasaki had been willing to leave even Carbink alone for now, returning it to its Poke Ball, hurt but alive. Steven shuddered, remembering his Pokemon's pained shrieks. He couldn't let that happen again.

The room that his guards, two Pawniard and a single Klefki, led him to wasn't a cell, or at least it hadn't been intended as one. It looked like a small storage room that hadn't even been entirely cleared out, with coils of thick cables and a couple of boxes still stacked in the dusty corner. But the door was thick and only opened when the Klefki floated over to press a keycard on its ring-arms to the panel.

It shut and locked behind Steven as he entered the storage room, leaving him in the gloom of a single, weak light bulb affixed to the stained ceiling.

He sighed. "I hope the plan can still work," he muttered. "This is definitely beyond anything we expected..."

Twisting around, he managed to pull his bound under himself to the front instead. With that, he could at least try to look for a way out. His Pokemon had been taken and, patting his pockets, he confirmed his cellphone and PokeNav were gone too. But it seemed whoever had been put in charge of that — one of Murasaki's Pokemon? — hadn't bothered taking anything else.

That included his hand tools. They were probably too small to be effective weapons, but it wasn't hard to use the chisel to pry apart one of the links in the handcuffs' short chain.

Poking around the room yielded nothing of immediate use. The boxes contained a combination of slightly rusted small machine parts and more cables. The vent was small and high up — even if Steven had entertained some spy movie notion of crawling out through it. There was no keypad on the inside, and no way to open the door once it had locked.

The only thing that caught his attention was the small panel next to the door. It was just a small metal rectangle screwed onto the plaster, covering what must have been a some inner workings. But it was slightly loose, and the paint had been scraped off around the screws, as if it had been taken off or reattached sloppily, in a hurry.

The drive slot on the screws was for a cross and too small for any of his tools to untwist. That wasn't enough to stop Steven — who simply wiggled his chisel into the gap between the panel and the wall, and pried it open with brute force.

Leaving it to clatter to the floor, Steven kneeled in front of the hole that had been revealed and peered inside.

It was full of wiring. Steven stared at it blankly.

Unlike his father, he had very little understanding of machines of any kind. He could work a GPS, what else did he need? Based on the position and the density of wires, they probably connected to the lock on the other side...

'M-maybe if I rip them out it'll open?' Steven thought, sweating a little.

But, as he reached for them, he hesitated. Up close, it looked like a couple of the wires had been cut. Gingerly holding up the cut ends, he frowned thoughtfully.

Putting the blue ends back together didn't do anything. Yellow with yellow didn't work either. But blue and yellow... sparks jumped between the two colors of wire, and there was a muted beep on the other side of the wall.

The door slid open.

Steven stared at it in surprise before smiling wryly. 'So that's what it was...' he thought.

The scratched screws, making it obvious the panel had been removed before, the exact wires needed to open the door already separated out and cut — it was too convenient to be a coincidence. Given that this place didn't have even one actual cell for holding a prisoner, the chances were good that this was the only room that had been repurposed... that Mr. Stone had been held here as well. And he hadn't sat around idly.

'He must have been interrupted right before he could break out,' Steven thought. 'Dad... hang on.'

There was no guards on the corridor, as Steven stepped out cautiously. Well, none that he could see. Given what happened at the Aeon Fund's headquarters, a ninja could easily—

A hand landed on his shoulder.

"Gaaah!" Jumping, Steven spun around — instinctively reaching for Poke Balls that weren't there.

The person who had snuck up on him only waited calmly. With the facemask and the all black outfit without identifying features, Steven had to stare for a moment before he could be sure, but...

"Oh, it's you," he sighed. "Oboro, right?"

The ninja didn't bother to reply. "You were supposed to avoid taking any action that might endanger you," he? she? — Steven still couldn't tell, probably intentionally — they said. "Please follow the plan, sir."

That had been the ultimate solution Carat came up with... hire a ninja of their own. Then, have them follow Steven when he went to confront Murasaki.

It had been a rather shaky, questionable plan, and they had certainly failed to predict a number of things, but it was what they'd done, given the lack of other options. Neither of them had known the first thing about hiring a shinobi, but Flannery had, when Steven called her to ask. Steven... still had doubts about this.

"Are you really going to be alright, fighting your... comrades?" he wondered, glancing at the ninja dubiously.

"Please do not concern yourself on this lowly one's account." The dry tone of Oboro's voice made his overly polite, archaic way speaking sound sarcastic. "In the first place, the village would not accept conflicting contracts. As I've said, your enemy's contract is with our rival clan."

"Right, your rival clan," Steven repeated. The only reason he believed it was because Flannery had mentioned the same thing — there were many clans of ninja in Hoenn, the two strongest being most famous being rivals who favored Seviper and Zangoose as their signature Pokemon.

"Furthermore, there are none of them here," Oboro added. "It would appear they were ordered to remain outside and guard only the perimeter."

Steven's brow furrowed as he considered that. It made sense. Murasaki had said it herself, she trusted Pokemon far more than humans. So she must have relied on her Pokemon to guard inside her base of operations — that explained the lack of guards at his cell, since she wouldn't have Pokemon to spare on watching just a locked door.

Letting the topic pass, he said instead, "Where are we? Is this... New Mauville?"

That was the obvious guess. Stained walls, blown out lights, a layer of dust and grime on every surface — all signs made it clear that this place had been abandoned for a long time. But it must have also been a place of significance to Murasaki, and somewhere easy for her to access, that could provide the foundation for building a complex machine. That all added up to... the blocked off lower levels of New Mauville.

'So the attack on Wattson most likely hadn't been about revenge or even silencing him,' Steven thought, 'just stopping him from investigating this place. His wife said the sensors he set up here picked up something. That must have made her decide he was getting too close, or maybe he just ran into one of the ninja guards...'

"That is correct," Oboro confirmed, nodding. "This is the twenty ninth floor of the abandoned power plant, New Mauville. Most of the structure is still shut down, but one of the generators is operating at low power. The target is using one of the back entrances to move in and out... However, I have scouted an alternative exit that will avoid the main patrol routes at the surface. I will accompany you to it."

"That won't be necessary," Steven said.

Oboro's expression was hidden, but the silence somehow clearly conveyed a sense of exasperation. "On the contrary, those are my orders," Oboro said. "Completing the client's orders flawlessly is a ninja's pride."

"I'm not leaving without my father and my Pokemon," Steven shot back.

"Please forgive my impudence," Oboro said blandly, "but I can complete my mission far more efficiently without you."

Steven's expression twitched a little — that was almost certainly true. It wasn't as if he had any special skills in infiltration or stealth, unlike the ninja. "But still, I—"

"You are aware that I can simply knock you out and carry you to exit," Oboro pointed out.

Instinctively taking a step back, Steven wondered, "Guh... W-what happened to obeying the client's orders?"

They stared at each other. "Tch," Oboro made an irritable noise, looking away first.

Silently, Steven let out a heavy breath of relief.

Completely abandoning the previous conversation topic, Oboro returned to business. "I followed the target and your father when they left the generator room. They moved to another room nearby, no special security observed. However, they were still accompanied by the target's Mawile. Several of her other Pokemon are patrolling across this level."

"And my team?" Steven asked.

"They were still with the target," Oboro reported. "Her Mawile was holding them when I departed. However..."

"It's strong, isn't it? Her Mawile," Steven said, frowning. "Stronger any of yours."

Oboro's eyebrow twitched at the blunt assessment. "...Indeed. Steel types put my Pokemon at a disadvantage, and we are specialized for stealth and speed. Direct combat is not a ninja's way." That sounded rather defensive.

"Then how about this... Distract the Mawile so I can get my Pokemon back, and then we'll deal with Murasaki while you get Dad out of there," Steven proposed.

He preferred it that way. He didn't want to just escape and pretend this never happened, he wanted to stop her. And he wanted to do it himself. This wasn't just some criminal who had taken the lives of countless Pokemon, and lied to and endangered humans — though that alone was enough to make his blood boil. No, this was someone who had gone after his family, his team, and him personally.

He was going to settle this.

Oboro was silent for several moments, mentally turning the scenario over and looking at it from every angle. Finally, the ninja nodded sharply — and bowed. "I hear and obey — as the client wishes."

The tone was completely expressionless and the words exceedingly formal, but Steven couldn't help reading some sarcasm there. Was the other clan like this too? If so, it was no wonder Murasaki preferred her Pokemon... Silently, he cursed the vice president.

'No, take this ninja with you, don't go alone, the president will get mad at me,' he mocked mentally. 'I'd rather fight those Pawniard bare-handed. She really does hate me, doesn't she?'

But... it would all over be soon. Yes, it was time to put an end to this terrible incident, after thirty long years.

~.~.~

 **Notes:** Somehow, yet another OC... Well, if I'm going down this path, I might as well embrace it, I guess. In any case, we're almost to the end! Next chapter should be the last. Thank god...

As always, please review!

~.~.~


	11. Battle

~.~.~

 **Chapter 11: Battle**

"And that is everything?" Murasaki asked, picking up and flipping through the pages of notes Mr. Stone had written out. "You're certain? There's no point in lying. If something doesn't work when I test this, we will simply begin where we left off, and I promise I won't stop so easily this time." Her eyes narrowed as she gave him a warning look.

"This is everything," Mr. Stone assured her, head bowed and shoulders slumped tiredly.

She hummed in acknowledgement, neither agreeing with nor rejecting his claim, and tucked the papers under her arm. "We'll see," she said simply. Wordlessly, she gestured toward the door — it was time to take him back to his temporary cell.

Mr. Stone seemed to consider making some other protest, but in the end he only shook his head and sluggishly rose to his feet.

The life energy machine had been built in one of New Mauville's generator rooms, using the shell of the ordinary power generator there. They had been using the large control room that looked over the generator room, and now moved out into it, onto the creaking metal ladder that led down to the catwalks running around the perimeter of the chamber.

Mr. Stone had been in the lead, Mawile at his back, and Murasaki bringing up behind them. Her Mawile would be enough to keep one man in line, but thinking ahead to when they would reach the makeshift cell, she unclipped a couple of Poke Balls from her holster. A pair of Honedge should discourage Steven from trying something, she thought distractedly...

None of them noticed anything — until a smoke ball exploded directly in front of them.

Showing the skills Carat was paying a truly exorbitant amount for, Oboro appeared crouched on ladder's railing next to them, together with a Zangoose.

"Go!" Oboro ordered, pointing at Murasaki.

The Zangoose lunged toward her, claws flashing. Her Mawile reacted instantly, spinning around to block the strike with its horn-jaw. The metal stairs under it creaked from the force of the impact between the two.

It had been just a distraction, of course. "Now!" Oboro called out.

Mawile screeched in outrage as a Ninjask struck from the thinning smoke screen, plunging its sharp forelegs into the metal of the case Mawile had been carrying and dragging it out of Mawile's grip. Still pressured by Zangoose at its back, Mawile couldn't stop Ninjask from zooming away, Steven's Pokemon in its claws.

"This way, quickly," Oboro urged Mr. Stone, jumping in between him and Zangoose — and Mawile and Murasaki beyond.

"Not so fast! Go, Honedge!" Murasaki called out, her voice cold and furious. "Stop them!"

A pair of Honedge appeared in twin flashes of light and shot forward without hesitation. One drove into the stairs in front of Mr. Stone, blocking his escape. The other aimed for Oboro, slicing into the place the ninja had been standing — though Oboro managed to sidestep.

Jarred by the Pokemon's attacks, the metal staircase screeched and jerked loose from the wall. Everyone, human and Pokemon alike, was thrown roughly to one side, as the staircase continued to twist further into the open air. Murasaki managed to grab hold of the railing, and the Pokemon held on in their own ways, but the only thing stopping Mr. Stone from falling off was Oboro's hand snapping out to grab hold of his jacket.

"Dad!" Steven called out, running up to the remains of the staircase down below. He smoothly caught the metal case Ninjask dropped toward him and snapped it open to pull out a Poke Ball. "Metagross! Help them!"

Two of its powerful claws closing around the edge of the staircase, Steven's ace held it in place, stopping its descent.

Reacting quickly, Oboro took the opportunity. With unexpected for such a lithe build, the ninja hauled Steven's father over his shoulder in a fireman's carry and vaulted over the warped railing to jump onto Metagross's flat top.

"Stop them!" Murasaki yelled.

The two Honedge were the first to react this time, their ghostly levitation giving them more freedom to maneuver. Spinning to point at Mr. Stone and Oboro, they launched like arrows.

"Pursuit!" Oboro countered.

Disengaging from its losing impasse with Mawile, Zangoose vanished from sight and struck at the Honedge pair, too fast for the eye to follow — it was a ninja's Pokemon, after all. The Dark type attack struck the Honedge across the back, doing extra damage and sending them careening off course.

Murasaki gritted her teeth in frustration, an ugly scowl twisting her face. "Enough!" she snapped. "Now! Mega Evolve!"

The rainbow stone in her hairpin flared, in time with the Mawilite tied to her Pokemon's horn. Energy burst out from Mawile as it transformed, its body growing larger and its massive jaw splitting into two. It launched itself at Metagross and its passengers, twin maws open and hungry.

"Claydol! Reflect!" Steven called out. The metal case clattered onto the floor next to him, empty, his Poke Balls safely clipped back in place inside his jacket.

Appearing in midair, its arms already spinning, Claydol summoned a barrier with its psychic powers. Mega Mawile crashed against the Reflect, its sheer power making the barrier waver and begin to warp. But it held long enough for Oboro to jump down to the catwalk, still carrying Mr. Stone — freeing Metagross to join the battle.

Metagross rocketed past Claydol, one claw slamming into Mega Mawile and pinning it back against the increasingly misshapen metal of the staircase. The physical attack was barely effective, only angering Mega Mawile.

"Dad, get out of here!" Steven called out. He exchanged a quick look with Oboro, confirming their agreement. "Claydol, fall back and go with them!"

"Steven!" Mr. Stone protested worriedly, tugging against Oboro's grip as he was guided toward the nearest way out of the generator room.

"Please follow me, Mr. President," Oboro said firmly, pulling him along insistently. "Our presence will be a liability." Returning Zangoose to its Poke Ball, the ninja gestured sharply to Ninjask. It circled around sharply, buzzing by the Honedge and disrupting them as they followed, and sped ahead of the fleeing pair while Claydol brought up in the rear, setting up another psychic barrier.

"Dad, go!" Steven yelled.

He couldn't spare the concentration to do more than that. Snarling, Mega Mawile had begun to push Metagross back — it was a truly powerful, well-trained Pokemon. There was no time to trigger Mega Evolution either.

"Use Bullet Punch!" he commanded instead.

"Sucker Punch!" Murasaki preempted.

Metagross reeled as Mega Mawile struck it with the super-effective attack. But it pushed through and retaliated with a lightning fast barrage of punches. Even without its trainer's direction, Mawile hardened its body with Iron Defense, leaving the hits clanging off.

The grating that made up the floor shuddered as Murasaki leaped off the broken staircase and landed heavily on the catwalk below. Her glare was chilling.

"You really insist on making this difficult," she said, her lips twisting in a vicious, humorless smile. "I should have expected nothing else from Alexander's line..."

Metagross had fallen back, letting Mega Mawile slip free and retreat as well. It hovered protectively closer to Steven instead, putting itself between its trainer and both opponents. He'd been in direct danger too many times in the last few days, and Metagross was too worried to leave him undefended.

"It's alright," Steven murmured, realizing his ace's reasoning. "I'm fine. But we have to beat them and put an end to this. Are you ready?"

Across from them, Murasaki had pulled a small device out of her obi and quickly typed in a code. "I won't hold back anymore," she said — and pressed the final key.

The lights went out, all at once. The machinery in the walls and the ceiling moaned as it powered down abruptly, the entire reactivated level shutting down at once. It would shut down the elevators too, making Oboro and Mr. Stone's escape more difficult.

But also—

"Mega Evolve!" Steven shouted.

Bright power flared around Metagross as it transformed, pushing back Mawile, which had tried to take advantage of the darkness to attack. Even when the light of the evolution faded, Mega Metagross continued to glow enough to illuminate the area around them — well experienced from the many excavations with Steven.

"I won't hold back either," he said coldly, meeting Murasaki's eyes across the battlefield. "Meteor Mash!"

"Protect!" Murasaki snapped out, and her Mega Mawile obeyed perfectly. A barrier blocked and nullified the force of Mega Metagross's shining charge. "Torment, stop it from using that move again!"

As Mega Mawile stomped its foot against the grating, an evil aura emanated from it, making Metagross shudder. Steven gritted his teeth. Mawile's typing protected it from Metagross's psychic attacks and its Giga Impact as well. And its high defense made any weaker Stell type moves do little more than chip damage. Mega Metagross was stronger, he was certain of that, but...

"Go up! Get out of the way!"

"Fire Fang!"

...the super effective damage was going to add up quickly.

Fortunately, Mega Metagross dodged this time, hovering sharply upward, out of the way. Mega Mawile's burning jaws struck just under it, but it was too close, close then it should have been. Steven's eyes narrowed as he tried to figure out what he'd missed.

He could just pick up a faint aroma... 'Sweet Scent?' he guessed. Murasaki hadn't given the order, but an experienced enough Pokemon could use a more passive move like that on its own continuously — and Metagross's ability changed when it Mega Evolved, making it vulnerable to stat changes.

Attacking from range would be best, to limit Mega Mawile's ability to retaliate... Unfortunately, long range wasn't exactly Steven and Metagross's specialty either.

"Stay back and use Shadow Ball!" Steven shouted.

A sphere of dark energy formed between Mega Metagross's forward claws and rocketed at Mawile, which hopped back quickly to evade. Making the same connections as Steven, Metagross continued shooting off one Shadow Balls after another, as quickly as it could form them. Their eerie purple glow danced over the railing, the catwalk, and the looming shape of the life energy machine, as they flew past — each missing and phasing through whatever it hit instead.

"Enough!" Murasaki snapped. "There's no point playing this game. We'll draw you out!"

Steven had only a moment to realize that her gaze shifted to him, and what that meant.

Pivoting in the middle of its next dodge, Mawile shifted to dash at a target that couldn't' fly away out of reach — Steven himself. As Murasaki had intended, Metagross abandoned its distance attacks and raced to protect its trainer with a furious, screeching roar.

Steven threw himself aside, but the fangs of one jaw still caught his arm, shredding the sleeve and gouging deep enough to draw a splash of blood.

That was as much as Mawile could do before Mega Metagross crashed down into it, making its bite release instinctively. They tore through the grating and impacted into the floor far below in the darkness, making the entire room shake like an earthquake. Electricity arced out — they must have torn into the machinery.

The force of the collision was too much for the catwalk, and in the next moment, the section Steven and Murasaki were standing on dropped out from under their feet like a trap door in Flannery's gym.

"Oof!" Steven groaned as he hit the floor, hard.

His head was ringing, and he couldn't make out what was happening in the battle any longer, Metagross's glow spinning dizzily as it and Mawile tore at each other. They seemed to have fallen to little more than a furious free-for-all, both wailing on their opponent with no tactics. Sparks flew with each blow between the two metal bodies, accompanied by the rare flash of a half-formed move.

Unlike Steven, Murasaki had managed to land on her feet, but whatever she had done hadn't made her superhuman, and and she collapsed as her knees gave out from the landing. In the disorienting mess of unsteady lights, it took Steven a moment to realize that she wasn't getting up — clutching her head with one hand, she had gritted her teeth against the pain and disorientation.

The piercing whine that made it so hard to think wasn't just in his ears. It was something in the walls, under the floor, beneath the central platform nearby and in the life energy extractor above. Despite Murasaki's shutdown, the battle must have jarred something into reactivation.

An unstable light and energy was gathering in the device above and in the air. Steven shuddered, feeling increasingly ill.

"M-Metagross—!" he called out, his voice catching as he suddenly found himself struggling to breathe.

It wasn't affecting just the human either. In the next moment, the extra mass of their Mega Evolutions bled off Metagross and Mawile, leaving them in their normal forms again. Taking advantage of the moment when Mawile stumbled a little, thrown off by the changes in its size and shape, Metagross managed to bat it aside and banked sharply toward Steven.

Scooping up its trainer with its front claws, it began to ascend quickly. "Wait!" Steven protested. "Those two are still—"

Something exploded, shaking the room and sending Metagross careening off course before it managed to right itself.

The generator room was coming apart, electricity and the strange unstable energy shooting wildly through the air. The device on the ceiling had opened again, gathering a wavering light in the center of its petals, but there was no telling if it was operating correctly anymore. Steven couldn't even make out Murasaki or her Mawile below.

"Metagross!" he yelled, his voice nearly drowned out by the cacophony. "Use Flash Cannon! Take it out before it gets any further!"

Metagross's red eye swirled toward him, then to the life energy device he was pointing at. He couldn't hear it, but he could feel it rumble in acquiescence, and a bright light quickly gathered in front of it.

Roaring, Metagross fired.

Steven clung desperately to the claw holding him, shielding his face with one arm from the Flash Cannon's shockwave at close range. Metagross's aim had been off, hitting the ceiling somewhere overhead, and it had to pivot in midair to drag the beam of Flash Cannon toward the life energy extractor. As it neared the device, the beam began to warp and strain against an invisible barrier. It unravelled, splitting into twisting strands...

Energy erupted outward, sweeping across the chamber.

Metagross, and Steven with it, was flung aside. They hit the wall with a jarring bang — then everything went dark.

~.~.~

 **Notes:** Man, this battle was hard. I've never really written Pokemon battles, and I haven't watched much of the anime in a long time, so it's a bit hard. But I hope it wasn't too underwhelming.

Next time, just a short epilogue. As always, please review!

~.~.~


	12. Epilogue

~.~.~

 **Chapter 12: Epilogue**

Groaning, Steven reached up blindly to hold his head. It was pounding, and there was a wet streak that could only be blood. He winced and tried to sit up, pushing away the heavy claw that was pinning his middle.

"Metagross," he called out, his voice unexpectedly hoarse. "Metagross, are you alright?"

The large shape next to him stirred. Metagross rumbled quietly and, coming to, began to give off a faint glow again — enough for Steven to look around the chamber.

To his surprise, most of it was intact. Several of the wall plates had been knocked loose, and they had left an impressive dent where they had been flung by the explosion and then fallen, unconscious, but there was almost no other damage. Whatever strange energy Murasaki's device had discharged must have dispersed quickly...

Infinity Energy was like that too, wasn't it? Although amazingly potent, it was difficult to keep contained for use.

More importantly, he felt alright, now that his disorientation was wearing off. And Metagross also seemed fine, picking itself up and waiting patiently for him to take the lead.

Murasaki's prone figure was not far, lying motionless where she must have also been thrown back by the explosion. Steven swallowed heavily, suddenly fearing the worst — no matter what she'd done, he didn't want her to die or her blood on his hands. Metagross loomed protectively over him as Steven stumbled hurriedly over to her side and, kneeling, reached out to turn her over.

It wasn't a trick or trap. Murasaki didn't spring up on him, ready with some final gamble, but she wasn't dead either, her chest thankfully rising and falling with her shallow breathing.

But...

"What in the world happened? What is this?" Steven muttered, staring at her in shock.

The single gray streak in her hair had spread, until there was no black left at all. Deep wrinkles lined her face, and her hands had thinned into knobby sticks. It looked as if she'd aged decades in an instant.

A sharp, deep breath was the only warning that Murasaki was waking up. Then, her eyes opened, and she looked at Steven. He tensed, almost expecting another battle, but she only held up one hand, slowly and painstakingly, and stared at the gnarled, wrinkled fingers.

Her expression was blank for a long, increasingly strained moment — until she suddenly closed her eyes again, the tension spilling out as she gave a short sigh.

"So that's how it ends," she murmured, her voice raspy. "I lose."

~.~.~

"...some instability from losing their director suddenly, but it looks like Aeon Fund will be able to continue, since there is an actual, solid organization under that woman's insane schemes," Carat reported, flipping through her notes. "Our proposal to them will have to be put on hold for a while, of course."

"That's only natural," Mr. Stone agreed. He frowned pensively, then shook his head. "But I'm glad to hear that Aeon will be able to pull through. Many people placed their hopes and faith in it, and they don't deserve to lose that. Not like thirty years ago..."

The vice president paused respectfully, although her own expression was indifferent. "There were no other major issues during your absence," she continued. "I reorganized your schedule, so some apologies will need to be made, but there should be no long-term difficulties."

Mr. Stone chuckled, returning to his usual jovial mood. "Wonderful work as always! Devon is certainly safe in your hands!"

"Isn't that the reason you appointed me the vice president? It's only natural," Carat said calmly. Rather than a compliment, she seemed to consider it a statement of fact.

As his father laughed — apparently, he found the vice president's terse personality amusing — Steven sighed. "Is work really the most important thing to talk about right now?" he wondered.

"Yes," she shot back without hesitation. "You said that woman is no longer in any shape to continue her ambitions, right? It doesn't look like she trusted anyone enough to confide in them, so there's no one to carry on her legacy either. Both of you made it out safely, and we even got word from Mauville that Wattson is recovering. So it's over, everything worked out. Isn't it better to get on with our lives?"

She had a point. After the explosion of her life energy machine, Murasaki had instantly aged the thirty years she had staved off. It had taken a horrible toll on her body, and she hadn't even been able to stand on her own or stay awake for longer than an hour at a time.

"It's ironic, I suppose, but no one can escape time," Mr. Stone said, reaching out to pat him on the shoulder. "And it's long past time for this to come to an end."

His lips thinning uncertainly, Steven nodded. "I... understand," he said. "I just... I guess never expected something like this to happen. Even now, I'm not sure what to think."

"This... is my fault. I'm sorry," Mr. Stone said. "I've tried to change Devon to leave this kind of ugliness behind, but I also tried to hide Devon's past. Even this time — I should have said something from the start, instead of covering it up. I just didn't want anyone else to be dragged into that old darkness... I'm truly sorry."

"...You didn't do anything wrong," Steven muttered, looking away awkwardly. "I'm just glad you'd alright, Dad."

The awkwardness only grew as his father beamed at him. "That's my boy!" Mr. Stone proclaimed proudly. "And you did such a good job figuring things out too! Ah, I feel like I can just leave everything in your hands!"

"Please don't," Steven muttered.

"Is that so, President?" Carat said coldly, her eye twitching a little.

"Hahaha, I mean the both of you, of course," Mr. Stone corrected quickly. "After all, you seem to be getting along now. You finally see how smart my Steven can be, right? I knew you'd come around to old Stone charm!"

The vice president stared back at him blankly, apparently waiting for him to run out of nonsense to say. Mr. Stone beamed, making a shiver instinctively go down Steven's spine.

"So what do you say, why don't you marry him?"

There was a moment of silence. "What?!" Steven shouted, horrified.

"Please don't even suggest it, sir," Carat said blandly. "I'm not interested in a child twenty years younger than me."

"Come now, don't be like that!" Mr. Stone carried on, seemingly warming up to his terrible joke (?). "If nothing else, he's easy on the eyes, right? And it's not like he'll get in the way. Please think of this old man's worries. If it's you, I'll feel at ease about my son's future!"

"What?! You can't be serious!" Steven protested, his head spinning in growing horror.

"And no one can doubt your claim to the company if you marry into the family!" Mr. Stone finished in the tone of someone presenting a winning argument, or a deal that can't be refused.

"Stop trying to... to sell me!"

His father laughed uproariously, ignoring Steven as always. Why had he worried so much about this man anyway—?

Nervously, he snuck a glance at Carat, who turned and met his eyes. For the first time, Steven felt an instinctive sense of understanding with her. Her expression smoothing out into a very unsettling mild look, the vice president turned back to Mr. Stone. "Mr. President," she began, "is that really how you feel?"

Given that he had indeed appointed her his second in command, it was clear that Mr. Stone recognized that particular tone of voice. His laughter cut off with almost comical abruptness as he paled and frantically tried to think of a way to backpedal.

Crossing his arms, Steven leaned back and waited with amusement. For once, the shoe was about to be on the other foot. He was going to enjoy watching his father get wrecked instead.

It was, he thought, a rather pleasant payoff.

~.~.~

 **End Notes:** It's over! Somehow. Not really sure what was going on there at the end... I didn't really have the conclusion planned out when I outlined the story, so I wonder if that shows.

It didn't really turn out all that interesting, and just dissolved into an OC fest instead. As the author, I can conclusively say that it's 25K words of wasting everyone's time with no literary value whatsoever. Oh well, too late now.

Thank you to everyone who somehow made it to the end (if there is, indeed, anyone like that). Special thanks to **Wolflyn** for being the only reviewer, haha. And, as always, please review!

~.~.~


End file.
